


Exposure

by TheSoundOfThunderstorms



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Oh yeah and murder, and way too many sandwiches, lots of photography, there's smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-29 00:54:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 36,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17193434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSoundOfThunderstorms/pseuds/TheSoundOfThunderstorms
Summary: They got so caught up in each other.





	1. It all starts somewhere

**Author's Note:**

> So, yes, this is the story I've been working on since... November? It's totally, completely done.  
> I hope you enjoy part one while I whip part two into shape :)

Sombra sat at her favorite table outside the bakery where she ate lunch every day. With a sandwich in her hands, she set out on her new favorite hobby. Across the street from the bakery was an aged apartment complex. For the past month, a woman sat outside and chain-smoked at the edge of the stoop. Lighting each new cigarette with the butt of the last, the woman stared off with disinterested eyes until she ran out. At that point, the woman would stand up and walk back inside the apartment complex. 

In her month-long observations, Sombra noticed something that made her mind go wild with theories. People would occasionally approach the woman, bringing her craft envelopes. The woman would take the envelopes and pull out their contents. Flipping through whatever they brought her, she’d put the documents back and either shoved the envelope back or kept it. Each time she kept an envelope, they’d both disappear into the building. The current winning theory was that the woman was a killer for hire.

The smell of coffee brought Sombra’s attention away from the woman for a moment. A stoned faced man had approached the stoop and Sombra was already thinking of ten different scenarios. “What do you think she’s doing today?” She crumpled up her sandwich wrapper, placing it on the table to pick up the cup that was just placed there.

“You know exactly what’s going on over there. It’s the same thing every time.” The bakery owner had already told Sombra what she thought of the whole situation. Prostitution.

“Yeah, yeah.” A look back to the man waiting patiently by the stoop made Sombra think he was sent by someone else. He didn’t seem emotionally invested like the usual crowd.

The bakery owner left Sombra to her ponderings. Sipping on her coffee, Sombra watched the woman get up, envelope in hand. She climbed up the short set of stairs, stopping by the entrance with the man right behind her. Right before the woman went inside, she turned to catch a glimpse of Sombra and smiled.

The one thing that had Sombra coming back.

Sombra placed her empty cup back on the table. She stretched her arms above her head and stood up to leave. There was nothing left for her to do until the same time tomorrow.

-

The next day, by the time Sombra got to the bakery, the woman was already sitting on her stoop. Sombra popped into the bakery and ordered her usual. As she went to sit outside, a police car pulled up by the woman. Two officers came out and motioned for the woman to stand up.

Sombra watched the events unfold, wholly distracted from unwrapping her sandwich. The woman had gotten up without an incident, letting the officers handcuff her and escort her to the back of the squad car. Sombra locked eyes with the woman through the back window. That same smile shined back at her as the car drove away.

Slumping back into her chair, Sombra processed the last couple of minutes over and over in her mind, trying to wrap her head around what just happened. At the very least, it seemed her new hobby had ended right then and there.

When her coffee came out, she couldn’t even hear the comment the bakery owner muttered, too caught up in what just happened to give her any attention. Anxious to leave, Sombra downed her coffee in a few gulps, ignoring the heat burning its way down her throat. Maybe she could find out more on what happened in the police systems.

The walk back to her own place wasn’t long. Sombra woke up her computer and clicked into a folder on her desktop. A live feed of the local police department popped up on screen. As she ate the sandwich she got earlier, Sombra combed through the systems, trying to find anything that pointed her in the right direction. Nothing. Deciding that it was a time issue, Sombra minimized the window and got to work on her other projects.

Hours passed. By the time the sun had set, Sombra figured that there would be something to work with, a tasty piece of information to satisfy her curiosity. Not a damn thing. Frustrated, Sombra rolled away from her computer and stretched out her legs. Maybe it was time to let it go. They were just strangers after all.

A rumble of hunger got her to her feet and into the kitchen. Sombra opened her refrigerator and laughed. She had a wide assortment of sauce and nothing else. Sombra checked the kitchen clock and saw that she had two hours before the store closed.

Shutting the refrigerator closed, Sombra left the kitchen and headed for the front door. Once she got outside, she took her time walking through the cool night air. The grocery store wasn’t going anywhere, and she still had plenty of time before closing time.

She passed by a few familiar staples of the neighborhood. Two territorial cats hissing for control of a stairwell. The wall of graffiti with something new popping up each day. That same guy every night that tried to sell her _something._ He always spoke too fast for Sombra to understand.

As Sombra walked passed the bakery, she sighed wistfully at the old apartment building across the way. There went her fun.

A vehicle coming up from behind drew her attention. A limousine. It stopped right in front of the apartment complex. Sombra stood stock still, holding her breath as a very familiar person walked out of the limo. “No way.”

Apparently off the hook for whatever it was, the woman Sombra had grown accustomed to seeing every day for lunch closed the car door behind her and made her way up the steps to the apartment building’s entrance. The limo drove off, leaving nothing but an empty street between them.

The woman stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around. The darkness made it hard for Sombra to make out the woman’s expression but the fact that sharp eyes were locked onto hers was abundantly clear. Not knowing what else to do, Sombra waved at the woman. It was small and quick before she dropped her hand to her side.

A laugh traveled across the street. Sombra watched the woman disappear into the building, suddenly finding the will to move her feet when she was out of site. She grinned and stuffed her hands into her pockets. Her fun wasn’t over yet.

-

Just like the day before, the woman was already on her stoop smoking away. Unlike yesterday or any day in the past month, the woman straightened up at the sight of Sombra and motioned for her to come closer.

In disbelief, Sombra stopped walking and pointed to herself. When she got a nod, Sombra made her way across the street. There was no way she was going to miss out on a chance to talk.

As soon as Sombra got close enough, the woman spoke up. “What’s your name?”

That voice had Sombra blanking out for a second. Not what she expected but somehow two hundred percent better than what she could even imagine. “Sombra,” she leaned against the railing, getting intimate with the smell of tobacco, “Yours?”

“Amélie.” Amélie pulled held out her lit cigarette for Sombra, “You smoke?”

Sombra hadn’t smoked in a while, having gone a couple months without it. She reached for the cigarette anyway. As she took the first drag, she watched Amélie pull out another cigarette and light it against hers. Whatever was happening, Sombra was into it.

“You’ve been watching.”

Sombra nodded, not bothered in the slightest to have been called out. “I’ve been trying to figure out what it is you do.”

Amélie blew out a puff of smoke, watching it dissipate into the air before answering. “I’m a photographer.”

“Bullshit.”

A smirk. “I can show you.”

Tempting. “You trying to lure me inside with you?”

“Is it working?”

Sombra put out her cigarette butt and flicked it into the trashcan behind her. “Yeah, okay. Show me.”

Amélie kept her cigarette between her lips as she stood up. She turned around and walked up the stairs, not bothering to check if Sombra was following.

Greeted with scuffed flooring and worn wallpaper, Sombra didn’t get much time to examine the old building before she had to pick up the pace to catch up with Amélie as they headed up the stairs.

They stopped at the third floor in a dark hallway with flickering lights. Amélie fished out her keys and unlocked her apartment. She stepped inside first, putting her cigarette butt into an ashtray by the front door.

Sombra followed Amélie inside, taking in how, despite the appearance of the rest of the building, Amélie’s apartment brought a sense of comfort.

Amélie leaned against the wall next to the already opened door and motioned for Sombra to step inside first.

What the hell? Assuming she’d just stepped into the bedroom, Sombra took a moment to process the view. A king-sized bed sat in the middle of a lighting setup. A white backdrop hung behind the bed and black curtains blocked out all light coming from the window. A couple of stands supporting some sort of covered lights stood off to the side of the bed. The walls were filled with framed pictures, all of them in black and white.

“You weren’t kidding.”

Amélie picked up a camera that sat on the dresser across from the bed. “Can I take your picture?”

Sombra focused back on the bed and walked toward it. “On the bed?”

“Yes, on the bed.”

Taking off her shoes, Sombra sat on the edge of the bed, noticing first the softness of the sheets. They were a cream color. Entirely too gentle for the impression she got from Amélie. As Sombra examined the careful way Amélie set up her camera, fingers delicately touching each piece, she changed her mind. The sheets suited Amélie just fine. “How do you want me?”

Amélie continued to fiddle with her camera, not bothering to look up at Sombra. “Like you forgot I’m even here.”

Sombra smiled as she fell back onto the bed. She stared up at the ceiling for a bit, wondering what exactly Amélie implied. She could pull out her phone and get some work done. Judging from the tapping coming from behind, that was what Amélie did. Was that the picture Amélie wanted? Sombra stole a quick peek to Amélie, seeing that she had a small folding table set up with a laptop perched on top. Amélie sat on a stool as she tapped away in concentration, most likely in a conversation with someone. Did it even matter what kind of picture Amélie was going for?

Half an hour passed with nothing happening. Sombra yawned. A slow-sinking exhaustion had settled over her. She blamed the sheets, but the plush mattress was just as much a culprit. She was about to rest her eyes when a persistent itch bloomed on her abdomen. Sombra lifted her shirt and scratched away at it. That’s when she heard it. A click. Amélie had finally taken a picture.

Sitting up, Sombra blinked away the spots of black dotting her vision that came from her tired state. Another click. Sombra yawned again, rubbing at her arm as the itch moved away from her stomach. One more click. She finally looked back behind her, finding Amélie with the camera trained on her.

Amélie put down her camera once Sombra’s attention was back on her. She went back to her laptop, tapping away once again. “Are you tired?”

“Yeah.”

“You can sleep.”

Sleeping in some woman’s apartment who Sombra was convinced was an assassin for hire seemed a little suspect. But she was kind of into it. “You just want to take pictures while I’m asleep.”

Amélie smirked at her laptop screen. She stopped typing and faced Sombra, leaning her chin against her hand as she gave Sombra her full attention. The smirk curved into a soft smile. Criminally beautiful. “Can I?”

It took two seconds to come up with an answer. “Yeah.” Sombra reached down and unbuttoned her jeans. She pulled them off and dropped them off the edge of the bed. She pulled the sheets up, climbing in under them. As her head hit the unbelievably comfortable pillow, Amélie spoke up.

“Could you sleep the other way?”

Sombra looked over her shoulder and saw the same scene of Amélie concentrating on her laptop screen. It would take her minutes to find out what had Amélie’s attention so wrapped up. But that would ruin the fun. She flung the covers off and dragged the pillow down to the foot of the bed before closing her eyes to succumb to sleep. The lights didn’t bother her as much as she would have thought, their softness somehow making her even more tired.

Before she fell asleep, Sombra felt cool fingers delicately tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and heard that familiar click.

-

She woke up in the dark. Sombra sat up and leaned over the edge of the bed, searching blindly for her pants. When she found them, she pulled out her phone and turned the flashlight on. One sweep of the room told her she was alone.

Sombra grabbed her shoes and stumbled her way out of the room, still feeling the effect of sleep on her body. She followed the same path from hours earlier, taking her time to look around. More black and white photos hung on the walls. Most of them were street views or architectural shots. A few landscapes spotted the eerily comfortable living space.

She stopped at the kitchen and found a card propped up next to a glass of water on the counter. Picking up the card, Sombra smiled as she read the note: The box is for you. “Of course she’d write like this.” Sombra eyed the stunning script written in dark-purple ink again before picking up the glass of water. She emptied the glass after her thirst surged from the first sip. Placing the glass by the sink, Sombra came back to the same spot at the counter and looked over the pretty box wrapped with a tiny, purple bow.

A quick shake of the box didn’t clue her in as to its contents. It felt like a shame to ruin the cute presentation but Sombra’s curiosity won over the desire to keep the box’s appearance intact. Macaroons. Four of them. All purple. Sombra plucked one out and gave it a test bite. The rest were devoured in the next instant.

Sombra left Amelie’s apartment not long after eating her gift. She descended the three flights of stairs, noting how unnaturally quiet the whole building was. When she stepped outside, Sombra heard police sirens. She stopped on the stoop and listened in the direction of the sirens. Downtown. “Is that where you went?” Of course, she still had no evidence of the whole ‘Amélie being an assassin’ angle, but that didn’t stop her from playing her game.

Stuffing her hands into her pockets, Sombra cleared the rest of the steps and headed for home.

-

Back to her usual routine, Sombra only made it so far as the bakery’s entrance before she spotted Amélie coming out of her building.

Amélie motioned for Sombra to come closer, smiling as she shaped her hands into a rectangle and mimicked the press of the shutter-release.

Lunch forgotten, Sombra crossed the street to meet with Amélie. She stopped in her tracks when a person with an envelope approached Amélie.

Amélie reached for Sombra’s hand, encouraging Sombra to come closer. She briefly looked in the other person’s direction as Sombra grabbed her hand. “I’m not working today.”

They walked inside the apartment building after the other person left. When they got Amélie’s door, Sombra finally spoke.

“Who are those people?”

“Photography clients.” Amélie still held Sombra’s hand as they walked to Amélie’s room.

Sombra blinked at the answer. That kind of threw a wrench in her theories. “You take their pictures here?”

“No. We discuss the venue and terms of payment. The photoshoot happens somewhere else.”

“Then what’s with the setup you have here?”

“I put it up for you.”

Oh. “So, what happened with the police the other day?”

Amélie had Sombra sit on the bed and let go of her hand. She smiled at the question. “A mistake.” She left the room for a minute and came back with an envelope. “These are for you.”

Sombra heard the air kick on as she grabbed the envelope. She opened it, clueing in on its contents immediately. Her pictures. Taking out the photos, Sombra flipped through them, stopping at the last one. A close-up of her sleeping face, one strand of hair coming across her forehead. She stared at it, never having the opportunity to see herself like that, until then.

A chill ran across Sombra’s shoulders. Amélie definitely lowered the air in the minute she was gone. “Not that I’m not into it, but,” Sombra cycled through the photos again, stopping on a picture of her on her back with an arm over her face, “why’d you suddenly decide that you wanted my picture?” She put the photos back into the envelope and set them aside on the bed.

“Because I think you’re cute.”

Oh. Sombra couldn’t come up with a witty comeback to that. Instead, she stayed quiet as a warm blush formed across her cheeks.

Amélie smiled at Sombra’s answering silence. She walked to her stool and plucked the pack of cigarettes from the dresser behind her. Taking one out, she lit it and blew out a cloud of smoke. “How do you feel about being shirtless this time?”

It took Sombra half a second to respond. “Only if you are too.”

Amélie’s smile grew. She put her cigarette down on the ashtray behind her and pulled off her shirt in one swoop. Her eyes locked with Sombra’s as she unclasped her bra in the front and let it fall to the ground. Amélie went right back to smoking, waiting for Sombra to follow suit.

Fucking hot. Sombra lifted her shirt up, taking it off along with her bra in one go. She tossed her clothes by the photos. Her nipples went hard from the next rush of cold air coming from the air vents. That or the fact that Amélie bit her bottom lip as she took in her topless appearance. Maybe both. Either way, Sombra was positive that’s what Amélie wanted to happen.

“Can you lie down for me?” Amélie picked up her camera and stood up from her stool. She placed her cigarette back between her lips before approaching the bed.

Near the foot of the bed, Sombra got on her back, raising her arms enough to let her fingers hang off the edge of the bed. She faced her head away from Amélie as she tried to calm her pulse. Everything about the situation was making it go wild.

“Beautiful.”

Another spike to her pulse as Sombra heard the click of the camera. Her fingers twitched when she felt Amélie kneel on the bed followed by another click. The smoke passing by her face made Sombra finally look in Amélie’s direction. The sight of Amélie sitting with her knees pressed to her chest, camera in one hand as she smoked with the other, a smile directed right at Sombra didn’t help her self-calming efforts in the slightest.

“Are you nervous?”

No. Yes. Cold. Thrilled. So damn cold. Still incredibly into it. “I’m everything.”

Amélie laughed at the answer. She put down her camera and leaned in closer as she held out her cigarette. “Here. It’ll help.”

The first inhale of smoke warmed her chest. It took the edge off the cold. Just slightly. The second calmed the twitching in her muscles and her heart rate settled down. Amélie had placed an ashtray on the bed for her. She smoked the rest of the cigarette with her eyes closed, listening to the intermittent click of the camera capturing the moments.

Amélie plucked the cigarette butt from Sombra’s hand and put it out in the ashtray on the bed. She put the ashtray away on the bedside table and went to light another cigarette when Sombra spoke up.

“Do you smoke anything else?”

Amélie smirked as she put her pack of cigarettes back on the bedside table. She opened the small drawer of the table and pulled out a gold cigarette case. Opening the case revealed two rows of joints strapped in place. Amélie pulled one out and closed the case. “Like this?”

“Exactly like that.”

Lighting the joint, Amélie took a long hit, holding it in her lungs before letting out her held breath. She passed the joint to Sombra and picked up the camera.

Sombra followed suit. By the second hit, it felt like she forgot to breathe. She laid there and experienced her thoughts tripping over themselves as her body pulsed with waves of tingling numbness. Amélie had some good shit.

“Better?” Amélie took the joint back and gave it another huff.

Sombra laughed as she went about feeling the goosebumps on her own skin. “Yeah, much better.”

Amélie pressed the shutter release again and then moved closer to Sombra. She hovered her hand above Sombra’s hips and grabbed Sombra’s attention with a wave of her finger. “Can I sit here?”

“Mmhm.” Sombra couldn’t help the giant smile that spread across her face as Amélie climbed on top of her and slowly settled on top of her hips. She closed her eyes, taking in how fucking good the extra weight felt. “Has anyone ever told you…” Sombra paused mid-sentence as she tried to remember what she was trying to say. It was definitely something profound and deep. That she knew for sure. Or at the very least it was some sort of compliment. She couldn’t remember. “Told you…”

“Told me what?” Amélie continued to take pictures as Sombra wracked her brain for the end to the question.

“I forgot.” She graciously took the offered joint, taking her time with the next inhale of smoke before handing it back.

A smile. “I’ve heard that one before.”

Sombra laughed. “God, you’re so funny.” She moved her hands until she found Amélie’s knees. Her fingers passed over the material of Amélie’s pants, suddenly interested in the feeling of them against her skin. Amélie smiled at her antics as she took another hit.

As she busied her hands with the repetitive activity of investigating Amélie’s nice sweatpants, a moment of clarity came to Sombra. “What did you mean that you weren’t working today?”

Amélie put her camera down. She averted her gaze to the side as she searched her mind for a response. Amélie grinned when she found an answer. “I wanted to spend the day with you instead.”

Sombra crossed her arms in mock indignation. “How do you know I even have the time to spend the day with you?”

Amélie blinked at the question, her eyes narrowed, perplexed at the question. She sat there, stumped. Her eyes lit up after a moment of thinking. “Can you spend the day with me?”

Damn, she was good. That or they were both too fucking high. “I suddenly have the whole day free.”

Another click. “Good, I had plans.”

“Like what?”

“This.”

“Anything else?”

“More of this.”

Perfect plans. “I’m into it.”

Amélie gently took hold of one of Sombra’s distracted hands, grabbing Sombra’s full attention at the sudden interruption. “Can you turn around for me?”

“Mmhm.” As soon as Amélie stood up on her knees, Sombra rolled around until she was on her stomach. The motion made it feel like she was spinning in place. She laid her head down on her crossed arms as she waited for her mind to stop cartwheeling away. As soon as Amélie settled on the small of her back, Sombra buried her face in the impossibly soft sheets. The warmth from Amélie contrasting with the chills running along her skin had Sombra grinning in the blanket.

Sombra placed a hand behind her back, her fingers finding the captivating sweatpants again. Sweatpants had no business feeling that good. Maybe it was the fact that Amélie wore them that made the sweatpants so good. Either way, she’d have to ask where Amélie got them later. Or never, judging by how forgetful she was. Although, going off the complexity of her current thoughts, Sombra thought it was better to ask about it sooner rather than later. Except as soon as she went to ask, a completely new thought highjacked her tongue. “Do you take color photos?” That’s not what she wanted to ask. Sweatpants, dammit, sweatpants. But then again, that was a pretty good question too. Never mind the sweatpants.

The weight of Amélie disappeared from Sombra’s back and Sombra felt disappointment taking over. Maybe she should have just asked about the… She forgot what the other thing was.

Amélie appeared before Sombra in what felt like seconds. Sombra lifted her head and grinned at the other woman holding a new camera. A polaroid.

A whirring sound came from the camera after Amélie took a picture. It spit out a square photo that Amélie handed to Sombra. “It will take a bit for your beautiful smile to show up.”

Sombra held the photo out over the edge of the bed and stared at it intently, fully prepared to wait as long as it took to see the finished product. It didn’t take long to see her own smile reflected at her. She laughed at the spectacle, thoroughly amused by it all. Sombra didn’t even bat an eye at the familiar click of Amélie’s other camera sounding behind her.

Scrambling to sit up, Sombra turned around to find Amélie. She held up the photo to illustrate her question. “Can I take one?”

Amélie nodded and handed Sombra the Polaroid camera from off the bedside table.

“Come here.” Sombra patted the spot next to her and waited for Amélie to sit with her. Once Amélie was close enough to her on the bed, Sombra wrapped an arm around Amélie’s shoulders and held the camera up in front of them. “Your best smile.” She waited two seconds for Amélie to presumably smile before pressing the shutter release. Sombra eagerly plucked the photo from the camera and laid back down on her stomach, waiting with impatient eyes to see the finished product.

Sombra leaned her head against her arm, completely enthralled with the photo. Her face sort of hurt from all her smiling but she didn’t care in the slightest. “You’re blushing in this.”

Amélie moved to see the photo. She took it out of Sombra’s hand and rolled away with it. “I am not.”

“You are.” Sombra tried to get the photo back but Amélie had it pressed tightly against her chest.

“No, I’m not.”

Sombra gave up in her mission. She settled for enjoying the warmth of Amélie’s skin as she buried her face in Amélie’s side. Closing her eyes, Sombra tossed an arm around Amélie’s hips, happy to feel the material of the sweatpants again.

“Can I keep it?”

Sombra nodded her head at Amélie’s question, too comfortable to answer.

“Do you want to sleep?”

Another nod. She felt Amélie cover them with the blankets, appreciating the extra barrier against the air-conditioning. She fell asleep to the soothing sensation of Amélie’s fingers running across her scalp.

-

Sombra woke up with hunger pangs. She opened her eyes, finding that she was covered in the cream-colored sheets. She moved her head and smiled at the situation. Her cheek was fused to Amélie’s stomach. Sombra rubbed at her cheek before poking her head from beneath the blankets.

Amélie lay on her back, hands busy with the phone she held. She moved one of her hands and smoothed away the hair blocking Sombra’s face, all while never looking away from the dim screen in front of her. “Are you hungry?”

Another wave of hunger rolled through Sombra’s empty stomach. “Starving.” She forgot to eat lunch, too invested in more exciting activities.

Amélie tucked her phone away. She propped herself up on her elbow and pulled the blanket off herself. Getting off the bed, she left Sombra in a cocoon of sheets.

Sombra stayed curled on the bed, eyes glued to the giant spider tattoo on Amélie’s back. How in the hell did she not notice that before? The spider sat on an unfinished web, the significance of it going over Sombra’s head. Amélie picked up her shirt left by the stool and as she put it back on, the spider disappeared.

Amélie walked over to the bedroom door and leaned against the doorframe. She smiled at Sombra still on the bed and motioned for her to come closer before disappearing through the door.

Grabbing her shirt from the corner of the bed, Sombra hurriedly slipped it on as she slid off the bed to stand. She stumbled through the hallway until she found the kitchen.

Chicken. Sombra climbed onto a barstool and leaned against the counter, trying to get a better look. The smell of butter came from the cast iron skillet Amélie stood over. A little pile of cut-up vegetables sat in a bowl off to the side next to a bottle of wine. Amélie must have had chopped them in advance. Sombra grinned at the implication. “Do you need any help?”

Amélie shook her head. She took the chicken out and placed them on a plate before dumping the vegetables into the skillet. “You’re my guest.”

Sombra leaned her head on her hand and sighed in relaxation. The atmosphere of the apartment and the comfortable way Amélie spoke made it easy to loosen up. “A cute guest.”

The comment made Amélie pause in her cooking. She looked over her shoulder with a hint of a smile.

If it weren’t for the freezing air-conditioning, Sombra would have melted right there on the counter from Amélie’s soft expression. “Do you have any more tattoos?” A change in subject would help with her melting state. Hopefully.

“One more.”

Sombra watched Amélie pick up the bottle of wine and drink some before pouring a bit of it into the skillet. “Where is it?”

Amélie reached down and tapped her thigh.

“Do I get to see it?”

Amélie put the chicken back into the skillet and grabbed the bottle of wine again. She turned around, leaning against the counter as she regarded Sombra. “Soon enough.” The wine swished against the bottle as Amélie took another drink.

Sombra bit her bottom lip, loving every bit of that implication.

Dishes rattled as Amélie pulled two plates from the cabinet by the stove. She scooped a serving of the food onto each plate and joined Sombra by the counter, taking the seat right next to her.

With the first bite, Sombra couldn’t put her silverware down. Sombra got through half her plate before she felt satisfied she wasn’t going to starve to death right then and there. As she slowed down in eating, from the corner of her eye, Sombra saw Amélie take her phone out to investigate a call.

Amélie hung up on the caller labeled with just the letter ‘A’. Stashing her phone away, she took another bite of her meal. “Just a distraction,” she said, letting Sombra know she knew Sombra was watching.

“Sorry.”

A smile. “You’re curious.”

“Yeah,” Sombra nervously rubbed at the back of her neck, “it’s kind of what I do.”

“And what exactly do you do?”

How do you spin ‘most wanted hacker in the world’ into a decent profession? “I do freelance work.”

“That sounds familiar.”

“I collect secrets in my off time. Government secrets, corporate secrets, personal secrets if need be. So, sometimes I forget to turn that part off.”

Amélie took a couple more bites of her food, chewing thoughtfully. “I have a feeling that I don’t have any secrets I’d need to hide from you.”

Now that was interesting. “Are you sure about that?”

Amélie put her fork down and pushed her plate away. “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

Sombra pushed away her plate as well, having practically cleaned the whole dish. “I hope I’m not letting you down then.”

“Far from it.” Standing up, Amélie grabbed the two plates and cleared any left-over bits of food into the trash. She spoke on her way to the sink. “Do you want to watch something with me?”

“Like a movie?”

Water splashed inside the sink as Amélie washed the plates. “Yes.”

She fucking loved movies. “Yeah, what do you have to watch?”

“Anything on the TV.” Amélie thumbed over her shoulder in the general direction of the living room. “You can pick.”

Amélie had given her too much power. Sombra dropped down from her barstool and made her way to the living room. She searched the area for the remote, finding it tucked neatly by the TV. Sombra got comfortable on the couch as she powered it on and flipped through the streaming apps Amélie had. Picking an app at random, Sombra used the search bar to find one of her favorites. A true classic.

Sombra hit play on the movie, deciding to get the opening credits non-sense out of the way so when Amélie finally finished in the kitchen, they could watch the actual movie. Right as the title screen came up, displaying ‘Alien’ in green font, Amélie had made her way from the kitchen and stood right in front of Sombra with her arms crossed.

A devious smile covered Amélie’s lips. She dropped her arms and took the two steps to get close to the couch before pressing her knee to the cushion, the fabric of her sweatpants sliding against Sombra’s jeans as she leaned in close. Her elbow pressed against the cushion behind Sombra’s head for support. “Can I kiss you?”

Warm breath tickled Sombra’s ear. All intentions of watching the movie ran out the door. She nodded yes, losing her breath when Amélie sat down on her thigh and kissed her, warm lips bringing some life back to her chilled body. She kissed Amélie back, feeling a tingling running down her spine at the grip behind her neck and the cool fingers tangling themselves in her hair.

Sombra moved her hand, running them down Amélie’s shirt until she found what she was looking for. She pushed up the bottom of the fabric until she could feel the smooth skin of Amélie’s back.

Amélie pulled away, smiling down at Sombra as her hands hung off Sombra’s shoulders. She straightened up and went to take off her shirt, only getting about halfway when a knock on the door made her pause.

Who the hell was important enough stop to her fun? Sombra couldn’t help the disappointed frown that painted her lips as Amélie climbed off her to check the door.

The knock got more persistent as Amélie approached the door. Amélie peered through the peephole, fixing her shirt while she checked who it was. Sighing, she leaned against the wall by the door and rolled her eyes. “We’ll have to finish the movie some other time.”

Sombra chuckled at the choice of words. The grin on her face vanished when Amélie opened the door. The person on the other side of the door stood with his arms crossed. Not happy in the slightest. He was tall, dark, and the chief of police. Akande Ogundimu. Well shit.

Getting up from the couch, Sombra made a quick shoe retrieval from Amélie’s room.

“You weren’t answering the phone.”

“I was busy.”

Sombra quietly tip-toed behind the pair, stopping when someone reached for her hand. She looked over her shoulder and found Amélie’s smiling face.

“I’ll see you?”

“Yeah.”

Satisfied with the answer, Amélie let go of Sombra’s hand.

On the other side of Amélie’s door, Sombra listened in for a moment to try and catch a whiff of their conversation. It wasn’t every day the chief of police came to your door.

“Who was that?”

“None of your concern.”

Sombra could tell they were familiar with each other but couldn’t hear much else beyond that. They probably moved to another room. Sombra stuffed her hands into her pockets and headed down the stairs. No point in staying any longer.

When she got to the last step, she realized her hand was clutching onto something in her pocket. A card. That same pretty writing in that same dark-purple ink. Sombra grinned at it in the dim lighting of the ground floor hallway. Amélie’s phone number.

“Now when did you stick that in there?”

-

The next morning, Sombra got out of bed and plopped in front of her computer. She turned her desk coffee maker on and waited patiently for her hot drink while browsing the news. One story caught her eye for a few minutes. Last night, another body in a string of murders was discovered. The victim was apparently on his way to the airport to catch a last-minute flight.

Sombra picked up her filled mug and exited out of the page. Amélie was busy talking to the police chief himself last night. There was no point in trying to connect her to that murder. Or to any of them. Unless… Her finger hovered over the news link. She debated exploring that new theory. In her deliberation, Sombra spotted the card she left on her desk. Suddenly she had better things to think about.

Swiping the card up, Sombra grabbed her phone and put the number in. She took a picture with the card and sent the photo as her first message.

_When’d you get the chance to stash that?_

Sombra didn’t have to wait long for a reply.

_When you were busy drooling all over my stomach._

_You’re lying._

_Don’t you remember you had to pull your cheek off?_

She did. She really did.

_Okay, maybe I did. A little. Does that make me less cute?_

_The opposite._

Sombra blushed at the kiss emoji that came next. There was no reason that a woman she barely knew should have that much of an effect on her. But then again, Amélie hardly acted like a stranger. Confident and captivating. That’s all she’d ever known Amélie to be. It was enough to keep her hooked.

Sombra tossed her phone to the side and focused on getting some work done. She had admittedly gotten a bit behind in the last two days.

-

When noon came around, Sombra found herself back at the bakery. Amélie wasn’t at her normal spot. Nothing unusual. Sombra walked inside the bakery and ordered her usual. Going outside to eat and wait for her coffee, Sombra spotted Amélie coming out of her building, a cigarette already between her lips and an envelope held under her arm.

Amélie got to the bottom of the stoop and crossed the street, not bothering to look for oncoming traffic in her unhurried pace. She took the only other seat at Sombra’s small table and placed the envelope by Sombra’s sandwich. “You forgot your pictures.”

Sombra grabbed the envelope and checked inside. She smirked. Those weren’t the same pictures.

Knowing exactly what Sombra thought, Amélie spoke again, “They’re behind those.”

“Mm, really?” Sombra emptied the envelope onto the table, going through the photos in no particular order. There was one common theme among all the photos from yesterday: they were fucking hot. Moments of absolute bliss. Her heart thudded at the ones with the subtle texture of raised skin, Amélie’s doing with the cold temperature of the room.

Amélie slid her hand over the table, her finger collecting two specific photos before dragging them back to herself. She blew out a puff of smoke, flicking away the ash as she stared at the pictures. “Can I keep these?”

Sombra leaned over the table to get a look at the pictures Amélie wanted. Both were taken from above. The first with her on her back, head leaning to one side as she clutched onto the sheets. Her eyes were closed but her lips were slightly parted, like she was mid-inhale. The other made her blush more from embarrassment if nothing else. Sombra was on her stomach, one hand behind her back as she smiled into the sheets. That was definitely when she was too focused on those damn sweatpants. “Yeah, you can keep them.”

Amélie’s lips twitched up at the answer. She put the photos on her lap and finished her cigarette. After she tossed the cigarette butt into the trash by her seat, Amélie leaned onto the table, her eyes briefly examining Sombra’s untouched sandwich.

Maybe she was hungry. “Did you want one?”

Amélie looked at the sandwich again and nodded.

“Okay, sit tight and I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Sombra stuffed the rest of her photos back into the envelope and headed inside the bakery. In the short time it took to order another sandwich and grab her coffee, Amélie was gone.

Sombra spotted Amélie across the street talking to a potential client. While eating a sandwich. Sombra whipped her head towards the table, seeing that her sandwich was, in fact, gone. She sat down in her chair and took a sip of her coffee as she pulled out her phone.

_You stole my sandwich._

Amélie put down the papers she held and pulled out her phone. She smiled at the screen. Her only response was to lock eyes with Sombra from across the street as she took another bite of the pilfered sandwich. She put her phone back and resumed her previous task.

Sombra couldn’t help but laugh at the exchange. She didn’t expect that out of Amélie but that made Amélie more charming. Unwrapping the new sandwich she apparently got for herself, Sombra went to finish her lunch, unable to stop smiling as she ate.

-

Sombra stood in front of the grocery store when she got a text from Amélie. A camera emoji. She still hadn’t restocked her fridge, too distracted by the events of the past couple of days to do it. The day Amélie was released from police custody, Sombra had immediately gone home to find out what the hell happened. And then the store closed. She hadn’t thought about going back since.

A quick pick-up of some essentials was the reasonable thing to do. As Sombra stared at the single, taunting emoji, standing stock still in front of the automatic doors, the will to even do that vanished. She spun around on her heel and walked in the opposite direction. It was obviously the better choice.

Time passed by in a breeze. Sombra found herself standing outside Amélie’s door, her hand raised to knock. The door opened before she got the chance to.

“How’d you know I was standing here?”

Amélie took Sombra’s hand and led her to the kitchen. “The building creaks, I heard you coming up.”

Sombra took a seat on a barstool and watched Amélie put a plate into the sink. It looked like Amélie had just finished eating dinner.

“Are you hungry?”

She could eat. Especially if it tasted anything like last time. “Yeah.”

Amélie took off the lid from a pot on the stove. She scooped up some of the contents onto a plate she took from the cabinet and placed the meal in front of Sombra. Spaghetti. Leaning in close, she handed Sombra a fork. “Take your time, I need to shower.”

Copper and grease. The smell came from Amélie, not subtle in the slightest. Sombra had no idea why she didn’t smell it when she walked in. She took in Amélie’s attire: tank-top, pants and boots. All black. She had on a pair of gloves. A smudge of black was under Amélie’s chin.

It was obvious Amélie had recently come back from _something._   As to what that something was, as soon as Sombra took a bite of her spaghetti, she really didn’t care. Maybe a night photoshoot. Somewhere industrial. That was all the thought she gave it. “I’ll eat slow then.”

Amélie smiled as she tucked a stray hair behind Sombra’s hair. “I won’t be long.” She left Sombra to her meal, disappearing into her room.

Sombra set her phone on the counter and busied herself with watching news stories as she ate. A local teenager saved two cats from a sewer drain. A new community center opened, boasting a strong bingo night turn-out. Someone tried to rob some bones from a museum.

Plate nearly cleared, Sombra scraped her fork against it to scoop up the last bit of sauce. A red banner appeared on her news feed, breaking news about something. Homicide in th-

“Are you finished?”

Sombra looked away from her phone and forgot all about whatever news story was playing. She knew Amélie’s hair was long but… It was like a dark curtain, droplets of water hitting the floor as Amélie ran a towel through it. And that thin robe Amélie wore. Purple with floral patterns stopping just below mid-thigh. A quick glance showed no signs of the second tattoo. What was she thinking about again?

Oh. “Yeah, it was good.”

Amélie took the empty plate and placed it in the sink with the other dish.  She dumped the rest of the spaghetti into a plastic container and stuck it inside the refrigerator. Turning back to Sombra with a soft smile, she held out her hand. “Come with me?”

Sombra nodded and slid down from her barstool. She took Amélie’s cool hand and they made their way to Amélie’s room.

Amélie had Sombra sit on the bed. She took a seat on her stool and picked up her camera. “How do you feel about…” Her words trailed off as she focused on adjusting her camera.

Falling onto her back, Sombra kicked off her shoes and got comfortable on the bed. “Feel about what?” She turned her head towards Amélie and found a camera focused on her.

“Posing naked.”

Sombra felt a lot about that, the main thing being the cold chills rushing over her skin. Or that might have been the air-conditioning again. One short listen towards the vents confirmed that for her.

At Sombra’s stretch of silence, Amélie fiddled with her camera again. “You don’t have to.”

“Okay.”

Amélie’s fingers went still. “You sure?”

A nod. Sombra pulled off her shirt and watched Amélie as her hands moved lower. The catch of breath when she popped open the button to her pants. Eyes trailing down every inch of newly exposed skin until she sat there on the edge of the bed fully exposed, hands gripping the bed frame as she was unable to do anything but listen to her heart beating in her ears, stuck, _fixated_ on how Amélie didn’t move, _couldn’t_ move.

Seconds. A minute. Sombra wasn’t exactly sure when Amélie finally moved. A twitch of a finger that sparked Amélie into action.

“Sorry I…” Amélie put her camera down and stood up. A bit too quick. Her stool fell over onto its side, making a loud banding in the otherwise silent room. Amélie stared down at it, red forming on her cheeks. She was embarrassed.

Sombra bit her bottom lip, trying her best not to laugh. She didn’t want Amélie to think she was making fun of her. It was the opposite really.

Amélie didn’t bother to pick up the fallen stool. She walked over it and made her way to her bedside table. Amélie pulled out her cigarette case. She yanked out a joint and closed it sharply. The smell of marijuana spread through the room and Amélie took a couple of hits. She fell back to the bed and held the joint out for Sombra.

Accepting the offering, Sombra stretched out next to Amélie as she smoked. She handed the joint back, feeling Amélie’s fingers twitch at the contact. Amélie put it out in her ashtray and stayed laying on the bed, eyes glued to the ceiling.

“You okay?”

Amélie kept her focus on the ceiling for a few more seconds before she listlessly turned onto her side to face Sombra. She kept eye contact with Sombra as she reached for Sombra’s arm, cool fingers trailing up the length of warm skin until she found the inside of Sombra’s elbow. “I forgot to breathe.” She laughed, burying her head in Sombra’s shoulder. “I forgot I _could_ breathe.”

The most beautiful thing she’d ever heard. Or maybe it was because she was high. Probably both. “Oh my god, don’t tell me…” A laugh bubbled in her chest.

“Yeah.” A spew of giggles left Amélie’s mouth.

“I took your breath away.”

They both devolved into a flurry of laughter. The end of one laugh lighting up the next until they were a mess of oxygen-deprived fools.

“Have you-” Sombra tried in vain to stop her fit of laughter. “Have you heard of someone d-dying from l-laughing so damn much?” She clutched at her stomach, already beyond sore from the overuse of her muscles.

“No. I h-haven’t.” Amélie was in much the same boat, desperately trying to hold onto any bit of air her lungs would let her keep.

“That’s gonna be us.”

They chuckled harder, clutching onto each other as they gasped for air between each tortuous laugh.

Sombra didn’t know how long it took for them to calm down, only that when she could finally breathe freely, she met eyes with Amélie who gave her a gentle smile. The image flickered through her mind, stuck in a lagged loop until she finally caught up to the current time. A rush of cold ran along her skin and Sombra couldn’t help the answering smile.

“I think we’re gonna make it.”

“Good, I had more plans.” Amélie sat up and brushed back some of her mussed hair. She blinked a few times, trying to remember something. Her eyes landed on her camera and she headed towards it, sliding off the bed to get it.

Sombra stayed stretched out on the bed with her arms above her head. She grinned when Amélie leaned onto the bed to take the first picture. Slow movements marked her path to the edge of the bed. She stopped for a bit each time to listen for the click of the camera.

At the edge of the bed, Sombra rested her head on her folded arms and asked for Amélie to get closer.

Bent before Sombra, Amélie listened intently for whatever Sombra needed to say.

“I’m cold.”

A smirk. “Are you?”

Sombra shivered when she felt Amélie’s hand hovering over her shoulder, making her goosebumps even worse. Another click. “Yeah.” She turned onto her side and huddled closer into herself. “But that’s what you wanted.”

“Smart.” Amélie took one more picture before she put her camera down on the bed. “I’ll get you something.”

That ‘something’ turned out to be a throw blanket. Deep purple and the softest thing Sombra had ever touched in her life. She huddled into the blanket when Amélie draped it over her body.

“Better?”

“Mmhm.” Sombra had her eyes closed, reveling in the warmth she found.

The bed dipped. Amélie probably picked up her camera. Soft footsteps circled the bed, the clicking of the camera marking each new picture taken. The bed dipped again. Sombra opened her eyes, finding Amélie examining her in concentration.

“Could you sit up?”

Clutching the throw tight, Sombra sat up. The immediate satisfaction spreading across Amélie’s face told her that the pose was what Amélie expected. One more click. What she didn’t expect was for Amélie to stretch out onto the bed until she was looking up at Sombra, camera at the ready.

“Beautiful.”

The compliments were nice. Sombra peered down at Amélie’s grinning face, how her lips eventually smoothed out into a delicate upturn. The soft smiles were nicer.

Amélie dropped her camera onto the bed and shifted to face the ceiling. She closed her eyes, apparently done with taking photos.

Sombra joined her, content to stare off into space and enjoy what was left of her high. As she thought about everything and nothing her focus shifted to the giant white back drop hanging behind the bed. A question formed.

“Hey, uh…” Sombra squinted at the ceiling to remember her question better, “what’s the backdrop for?”

“The walls are ugly.”

Sombra peered over the bed to catch a glimpse of the exposed wall. Some sort of old wallpaper. Not the worst. It kind of added to the comfortable atmosphere, something a sterile wall would detract from. “It’s not terrible.”

“You are far better to look at. I don’t want the ugly wallpaper to get in the way.”

Charmer. “So that’s it? For the ugly walls.”

“Mm, something to do with photography bullshit. And… Oh.” Amélie sat up, suddenly imbued with energy. She hopped off the bed, not bothering to fix her crooked robe, and grabbed one of the light fixtures. Amélie dragged it to the foot of the bed and pulled the light down as low as it would go. She went around to the other lights and shut them off, leaving a single light source.

“What are you doing?” Sombra had already sat up, curious to find out what Amélie had planned.

“I can project your shadow onto the wall.” Amélie patted the edge of the bed. “Could you leave the blanket?”

It’d be a bit chilly but Sombra could handle it for a bit. Sombra nodded as she dropped the blanket. She scooted to the foot of the bed, ignoring the chills running up her spine. “What am I supposed to do?”

“A pose, anything you want.”

This wasn’t something she’d ever done before. There wasn’t any pose that came to mind. Sombra sat there scratching her head for something but came up with empty air. “Nothing comes to mind.”

Amélie climbed back onto the bed and bent backward, raising her arms into the air in such an elegantly pretty pose. Beautiful really. “Something like this then.” She relaxed and waited for Sombra to copy her.

“Where’d you come up with that?” Sombra was pretty sure she had the back pose right but her arms felt a little clumsy. Instead, she settled for a stretching sort of pose where she held onto her right elbow, her right middle finger raised high into the air. Amélie laughed at her masterful efforts.

“I used to do ballet. Elegance, grace, beauty. All that.”

“Why’d you stop?” Cool fingers pressed onto her shoulder, making Sombra lean back slightly more.

“I found a different job.”

“Photography?”

A laugh. “Yes, photography.” Amélie got off the bed and picked up her camera. She sat on her stool and waited, taking her sweet time to press the shutter release.

When she heard the click, Sombra relaxed. “Did you want another pose?”

“If you don’t mind.”

While Amélie fiddled with her camera, Sombra grabbed the throw blanket and covered her cold body. She slid onto her back, knees still in the air. Her head rested right at the edge of the bed and she smirked at the whole-hearted concentration Amélie gave her camera.

“Amélie.” The first time Sombra spoke her name. A light ringing sounded in her ear as her pulse spiked. She knew exactly what she wanted.

Amélie’s head snapped up from her tinkering. She caught Sombra’s gaze and put her camera down. At Sombra’s beckoning, she got up from the stool, leaning over Sombra’s bundled form.

“Closer.” Any minuscule sound, down to the creaking of the old floors, faded away. Sombra reached up, her hands gently guiding Amélie’s face closer to hers. She asked a question, the one she wanted to ask hours before when Amélie had just come out of the shower. “Can we finish that movie?”

Amélie kissed her. In slow movements, Sombra inched her way into a sitting position, trying her hardest not to break contact between them. She failed immediately, slipping and landing face first onto the bed. A laugh came from Amélie. It didn’t matter. The throw fell from her body when she finally sat up. Sombra wrapped her arms around Amélie’s waist and pulled Amélie further onto the bed.

Amélie grinned down at Sombra when she found herself kneeling in front of Sombra on the bed. She tugged on the fastening to her robe and let the silky material fall to the floor. Closing the distance between them, she kissed Sombra again, running her hand down a warm thigh.

The second tattoo was another spider.

-

Sombra woke up first. The room was pitch black, save for the digital clock shining on the bedside table behind her. 7 a.m. She would have been content to go back to sleep, snuggled against Amélie’s back if it weren’t for her damn bladder. Detaching herself from the sleeping woman, Sombra slid off the bed. She covered her shoulders with the throw blanket that was tossed to the side last night.

Sombra searched blindly through the dark until she found her pants. She dug out her phone and used the flashlight to navigate through the room. Having never used the bathroom there before, Sombra guessed that the other door was probably what she was looking for.

Opening the mystery door in Amélie’s room, Sombra sighed in relief to find out she was right. She practically ran to the toilet and sighed in relief when her bladder was empty. The hand-soap was lavender. Some fancy lotion sat next to it. What the hell, why not?

Hands smelling like lavender and lemon, Sombra tip-toed out of the bathroom. She nearly dropped her phone in fright when she flashed the light over the bed. Amélie was awake.

“Morning.” She waved in the dark, dropping her arm when she realized Amélie probably couldn’t see it.

“Are you leaving?”

Technically Sombra worked for herself so she didn’t really have anyone to report to in the morning. She _could_ stay longer. As long as she wanted even. But if she always did that, she’d get behind in her tasks, making her job just that more stressful. “I mean, I don’t have anywhere to be. I just need to get some work done today. Maybe in the afternoon.”

“Could you stay for breakfast?”

Sombra didn’t eat breakfast. “Yeah.” A smile shined beneath the flashlight.

Amélie got back under the covers and didn’t say anything more on the subject.

Sombra pursed her lips, eyebrows set in confusion. Didn’t she just offer breakfast? Getting closer to the bed Sombra tried to make sense of the situation. “When’s breakfast?”

Amélie peeked an eye open. “Later.”

“Oh.”

A hand reached for Sombra’s, inviting her back to the bed. “You can sleep more.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. “Yeah, okay. I can sleep more.” Climbing back in bed, Sombra wasn’t sure if she could go back to the position she woke up in. Amélie decided that for her as she curled closer to Sombra and rested her head against Sombra’s chest. A cool hand slipped around her waist and Sombra scooted a bit closer to Amélie. They had already fucked, what was a little more cuddling? Amélie didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.

-

The smell of food woke Sombra up the second time around. Judging by the empty bed and the mouth-watering scent, Amélie was probably in the kitchen making breakfast. A quick look to the clock told Sombra it was 11 a.m. The time dictated it was more along the lines of lunch.

Sombra hopped out of bed and slid her clothes back on. If there were pancakes, she’d be willing to call the meal breakfast. And coffee. Couldn’t forget about the coffee.

Following the smell to the kitchen, Sombra hoisted herself up onto a barstool and watched Amélie.

Amélie stood in front of the stove, carefully pouring batter into a pan. She wore an apron over her floral-patterned robe. Little flour fingerprints and splashes of yellow spotted the apron.

Sombra scanned the counters near the stove. One of those citrus juicers sat off in a corner, about halfway full. Homemade orange juice. Sombra leaned her head on her arm as she smiled at the pile of discarded orange peels dumped into a bowl. “You put this much effort into every breakfast or just ones for me?”

At the sound of Sombra’s voice, Amélie froze in her task and slowly peered in the direction of the orange juice before finally focusing on Sombra. “I…” A blush formed. Amélie tried to speak again before shutting her mouth closed. Slight frustration? She rolled her eyes and turned back to the sizzling pan. “Give me a moment.”

That ‘moment’ lasted several minutes as Amélie emptied the bowl of batter and filled whatever it was she made with something from a small saucepan.

Crepes. Sombra stared down at her plate, appreciating the aesthetic of the delicately arranged food placed beside a small cup of freshly made orange juice. Almost too pretty to eat. The ideal of pancakes and coffee flew out the window in comparison.

“I used to love cooking.”

Amélie’s words broke Sombra from her spell. She picked up her fork and dug into one of her crepes. Apple filling. The texture of the fruit told Sombra it was also homemade. Trying not to devour her meal in one go, Sombra spread out her bites as she waited for Amélie to continue.

“Over the years it became more of a tedious task. One more thing I had to do to get through the day. So, yes, me cooking like this now is because of you. Because I like you.”

Her turn to blush. “You don’t have to if it’s that much of a chore. I mean, I don’t even eat breakfast.”

“It feels good, don’t worry about it.” Amélie smiled. “And besides, for someone who doesn’t eat breakfast, you look like you’re having a good time over there.”

Sombra dropped her eyes to her plate. One bite left compared to Amélie’s full plate. She picked up her cup of orange juice, downing it in a couple of gulps to try and cool her face down. She really thought she was holding back. As evidenced by the single, taunting bite of food left, that wasn’t the case. At all.

Embarrassment be damned. Sombra forked the last bite into her mouth, chewing with a proud smile. “It was good.” She presented the empty plate like it was evidence to her case.

Amélie smiled as she took Sombra’s dishes. Sombra tried to protest, saying that she could do it herself while holding onto her cup for dear life but one small kiss was all it took for Sombra to let go. After setting the dishes in the sink, Amélie took out the leftover spaghetti from last night and placed the container in front of Sombra.

“Did you like the food last night?” Amélie slid the container closer to Sombra.

“Best spaghetti I ever had.” Sombra grabbed the container if only for the fact that Amélie had pushed it toward her. An automatic response.

“Then that’s for you.”

“You’re not going to eat it?” Despite her meager protest, Sombra held the container tighter. It was damn good spaghetti and if Amélie was offering, she wasn’t going to refuse it.

“I’m going out of town today. I won’t be back until early in the morning.”

A terrible excuse. Amélie could have just eaten it the next day. Or maybe she had a thing against day old leftovers? Either way, the obligation of feeling guilty over the gift was over and done with. Sombra was taking home that damn spaghetti. “Oh. Okay then, yeah, I’ll take it home.”

Sombra slid down from her barstool, prized spaghetti in hand. “Good luck on your trip,” she pointed behind her toward the door, “I’ve got a bit of work that kind of piled up over the last few days that I need to tackle. But feel free to call, it’d be a welcome distraction.” Sombra paused. “Not that you are a distraction. Well, I mean you are. But in a good way.” Nothing came out right. “I’m leaving.”

Just as Sombra was almost out the door, Amélie spoke up. “I’ll call.”

Two simple words that made Sombra smile all the way down the three flights of stairs.

-

When Sombra got home, she put the spaghetti in her refrigerator and took a quick shower before plopping down in front of her computer.

Checking the time, Sombra saw that she had three hours to get the information requested for one of her clients or else she wasn’t getting paid. It was a nice check too. Not that money was her main concern but if shit ever hit the fan, it was nice to have something to lean back on. Cracking her knuckles, Sombra got to work on her neglected tasks.  

After about six straight hours Sombra bowed her head on her desked and breathed out a sigh of relief. The most important requests were done and she got some work in for the smaller ones. A familiar beeping noise brought her out of her relieved state. It was a communication channel she left open. The one direct line to her for anyone diligent enough. Sombra stared at the three words in the chat box: Can we talk?

Two words in response: Fuck off.

Sombra terminated the channel and created a new one. The usual types to contact her weren’t worth her time. She’d get some gems but mostly it was a slew of misunderstanding big-shots. If whoever it was really wanted to talk to her, they’d find the channel again.

For a moment, Sombra considered adding more to her hobby collection but one long yawn made it clear for her that she was too tired for it. A nap would fix that. Stretching out her aching joints, Sombra got out of her computer chair and took the five steps to her bed. She grabbed her stuffed bear and burrowed under the covers, ready to pass out at any moment.

Hunger woke Sombra up a few hours later.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Sombra made it to the kitchen, yawning all the while. She pulled open the refrigerator door and stood there in shock. Still no food. Well actually, there was spaghetti. Sombra shook her head as she grabbed the container of leftovers. If it wasn’t for Amélie, she wouldn’t have anything to eat. A pause. Or maybe it was because of Amélie that she still had no food. Shaking her head at the ridiculous excuse, Sombra dumped the spaghetti into a bowl and stuck it in the microwave. It was silly to blame Amélie for something she should have done. Sombra just had to make sure to stop by the store later. One look at the clock reading 11 pm told her that later would have to be tomorrow.

The microwave dinged and Sombra took out her prize. She brought it over to her tiny table and dug in. Good fucking spaghetti.

In the middle of her meal, Sombra’s phone went off. She reached for the phone and smiled at the name on her screen.

“Looks who’s calling.” Sombra put her fork down. She wasn’t going to eat in the middle of a call.

“I said I would.”

“To be honest, I kind of forgot about that.” The answering laugh sounded farther away. “Am I on speaker?”

“Yes. I’m still working and I’m all by myself. I wanted to know if you could keep me company until I finish.” Bootsteps walked away from the phone until Sombra heard a door open.

“I don’t mind.” Sombra listened to something being dragged. It fell to the floor with a hard thud.

“Thank you, these night shots really do get lonely.”

If Amélie took photos of people, why would she be lonely? The framed pictures hanging along Amélie’s apartment came to mind. Maybe that’s what she was doing. “Don’t worry, I got you covered in the lonely department. It’ll be like I was there.”

Another laugh. “Do you have a story you could tell me?” A repetitive sound, like she was cutting something carried over to the phone.

Sombra’s mind went blank at the question. A story? She had tons but they all hid at the mention of them. “Um, not right now really. I kind of just woke up from a nap, head’s still a bit in dreamland.”

“A nap? Or did I just wake you up from your sleep?”

Technically she had slept for much longer than a nap. About five hours. Three more hours and it would have been a full night’s rest. “Maybe I was just sleeping. I mean, either way, you didn’t wake me up. I got hungry. In fact, I’m sitting here with the spaghetti you gave me.”

“Really? That’s good.” Closer to the phone, it sounded like Amélie dug through a bag. A camera bag maybe? Little bits of noise made it seem like she was trying to open something.

“Which part, the ‘you didn’t wake me up’ or the ‘I’m eating the spaghetti you made’?

“Both.”

A loud screeching got Sombra’s attention. She walked to the window and found two stray cats fighting on the sidewalk. Someone ran up to them, essentially breaking up the fight. Inspiration came to her after the whole ordeal. “Hey, the story thing.” Sombra got back to her seat with a fully formed idea. “Does it matter if I make it up?”

“No.”

“Okay, it goes like this. One day there was this street cat who was new to town. She ran away from the last one because there were too many dogs after her prized tail. Finding a nice warm alleyway to live in, the street cat decided to look around town. The street cat, whose name is Olive so I don’t have to keep saying ‘the street cat’-”

A sudden laugh erupted from the other side of the phone. It lasted a good ten seconds before it tapered off. “Sorry, continue.”

Sombra had a hand covering her mouth to keep herself from laughing at Amélie laughing. After she felt composed, she continued. “Okay so Olive went snooping around town, getting the lay of her new home. Without knowing it, she stumbled onto another cat’s turf. She was just walking along when out of nowhere this other street cat jumped out of the dark and pummeled Olive to the ground.

“‘This is my home, what are you doing here?’ asked the vicious other street cat, one claw to Olive’s neck.

“‘I didn’t know that. I’m sorry,’ Olive said, trying to back away slowly.”

“So, the cats can talk.”

“Well, yeah. In that cat language of theirs. You know, the series of blinks and stares mixed in with a hiss or two.”

A soft chuckle. “I know now.”

“So anyway, Olive gets the fuck out of the other cat’s way and skittles back home.”

“Skittles… Like the candy?”

“Well if you opened a bag of them on top of a hill, they skittle to the bottom, much like Olive did to get back home to her comfortable pizza box wedged between a dumpster and the side of a building.”

“This story of yours is well thought out.”

“Thank you, there’s more to it. For the next couple of weeks, Olive kind of goes back to the mean cat’s turf. She learned that mean cat had a name. Uh, Deli. That was because Deli begged for food from the local deli. And there was one other thing she learned.”

“And what was that?”

“Mm, hold on. I gotta do a scene that reveals that.”

“Of course.”

“‘Why do you keep coming back here?’ asked Deli. She was ready to throw down with Olive, just like every other encounter they had.

“Olive strutted up to Deli with a smirk… A cat smirk. ‘Well you see, you’re really scary and you always hiss me away. But I found out something,’ Olive replied.

“‘And what’s that?’

“‘I find that really hot.’

“And then they got married and ruled over the turf together, immediately afterward. The end.”

“What a story.” Bootsteps sounded again. Did Amélie just stand there and listen the whole time Sombra told her story?

“You liked it?”

“Yes. I love cats and their story was so… Uplifting.”

“Thank you, thank you. How come you don’t have a cat though, since you love them?”

A click sounded, telling Sombra that Amélie finally took a picture. “I smoke too much for one.”

Well, at least Amélie was thoughtful about it. “Oh, yeah. Maybe we could go to one of those cat café places one day then.”

“Are you asking me on a date?”

“Absolutely.”

More clicks sounded before Amélie answered. “You beat me to it.”

-

Sombra woke up in her bed with her phone glued to her face. She had fallen asleep talking to Amélie about anything and everything. Her eyes snapped open when she realized she fell asleep in the middle of telling another story.

Sitting up in bed Sombra saw that she had a message.

_Sweet dreams. You can tell me the rest later._

Sombra laughed. She could barely remember the story. Something about... Maybe lizards? She shrugged the thought away. Hopefully Amélie didn’t care if she ever heard the rest of that story.

Sliding out of bed, Sombra shuffled to her bathroom for a shower. When she was clean, she set about her usual routine. Coffee, browse, work.

Lunch came faster than expected.

Sombra found herself at the bakery, looking at a peculiar sight.

Amélie sat at Sombra’s usual table all suited up. Tailored and sharp. Sombra felt like she’d get cut from one look. Of course, the only thing that happened was her taking the other seat at the table.

One look away from Amélie in her incredible suit, Sombra found a sandwich and a cup of coffee sitting in front of her. Sombra picked up the sandwich first, forming a question in her head as the paper crinkled in her hand. “I thought our hot date was later on.”

Amélie smiled and rolled her eyes exaggeratedly at the comment. “I have a job this afternoon.”

One bite of the sandwich matched up with the flavor of her usual order. So thoughtful. “Fancy job?”

“Charity event.”

Sombra leaned forward over the table, a smirk on her face. “So, you wanted to see me before you had to go?”

“Mhm.”

Well, that was sweet. Caught off guard, Sombra leaned back into her chair as she felt a goofy grin overpowering her smirk. “Oh.”

“And I wanted to know,” Amélie slid her hand across the table until she touched Sombra’s arm, “if I could see you tonight.”

Amélie’s touch on Sombra’s arm flared with heat. “Tell me when and I’m there.”

A smile. Amélie pulled her hand back and stood up. She took two steps and bent down by Sombra’s ear. “I’ll let you know when I’m back.” She gave Sombra a gentle squeeze to her shoulder and a quick kiss to her cheek before she went back across the street and disappeared into her apartment building.

Sombra picked up the cup of coffee, unable to get rid of her grin as she sipped her favorite blend.

When she got back to her apartment, Sombra spent the rest of the afternoon on a classic movie marathon. She just got to the intermission part of “Gone with the Wind” when her phone lit up with a breaking news story.

Sombra gave the story a cursory glance, pausing her movie when she read the headline. ‘Top Contributor Shot Dead at Charity Event’. Usually stories like that were none of her business, murder investigations being far from her particular set of interests. Scandals, however, were more up her alley, as was the case with this story.

Thumbing through the article, Sombra rolled her eyes at the hastily put together story. He was a good person, ran a successful business, and he had a family. Blah, blah, blah. Someone like that didn’t die for nothing. “I wonder what this fucker did.” It could have been nothing and Sombra would have to offer up a verbal apology with him in mind later for assuming the worst. But usually… Usually these sorts of cases had an ugly history that showed up sooner or later.

Sombra was about to watch a live video about the charity event murder when she got a more interesting text.

_I’m home._

Sombra turned off her movie and got out of bed. Putting on a pair of shoes she headed for the door, noting that 8 pm time before locking the door behind her.

Before Sombra thought of knocking on Amélie’s door, she got a text.

_It’s unlocked._

Creaky floors. Sombra walked inside. The illumination from the kitchen was the only source of light that lit Sombra’s path towards Amélie’s room.

The door stood open. Sombra walked inside and found Amélie sprawled out on the bed. She walked closer, hearing a laugh coming from the bed.

Amélie grinned at Sombra when she came into view. Her shoes were haphazardly tossed off the edge of the bed. She held her tie in one hand while she worked on her suit jacket that revealed a wet, red-stained shirt beneath with her other hand. “I had to come home early because I spilled wine on my suit.” She laughed as the last button popped off. “I tried to clean it but it won’t come off.”

Sombra leaned her knee against the bed, her hands propping her body up as she got closer to Amélie. “At that charity event thing, right?”

“Mhm.” Amélie shrugged out of her jacket, giggling all the while.

“What was it for?”

“Diabetes.” Another laugh.

Maybe… “Were you there to see that guy get shot?”

“Mm.”

Not a definitive answer. Judging by how giddy Amélie was, something was up. “Did you take something?”

Amélie shook her head. “About the shooting… What do you think?”

If she didn’t take anything, Amélie had to be happy about _something_. “Well,” Sombra climbed further onto the bed, watching as Amélie got to work unbuttoning her shirt, “I think he must have been up to some shady shit.”

“Me too.”

“And if that were the case, maybe the shooting isn’t such a big deal.”

Amélie rolled onto her side, facing Sombra with a full smile. She patted the space next to her, motioning for Sombra to join her. When Sombra was on her side as well, Amélie spoke. “I like the way you think.” She leaned in closer, grabbing one of Sombra’s hands. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“How do you feel about fucking in front of the camera?”

At the mention of ‘camera’ Amélie thumbed behind her and Sombra followed the trail to a sight she should have noticed when she came in. A DSLR camera was angled on top of a tripod. A cable ran up to it, connecting to a laptop sitting on a small, fold-out table. She looked back to Amélie, suddenly feeling a lot of things about ‘fucking in front of the camera.’

“A lot actually.” Sombra cleared her throat. “Two questions though. First, it is just taking pictures, right? Second, the pictures are mine, right?”

A nod. “Yes.” 

“Okay.”

Amélie laid there, her air of drunken happiness vanished. She pulled Sombra’s hand up to her lips, kissing it once and letting it slide out of her grip. Her lips twitched and she bit the inside of them like she was trying to hold back a growing smile. Maybe she was trying to compose herself?

“You okay?”

Amélie propped herself up on her elbow, spurred into some sort of action by Sombra’s concern. “I am.” Pushing herself up, Amélie slid off the bed and walked to the laptop. One press of a button seemingly froze Amélie in place as she focused on the screen. Silence hung over the air until the camera made a fluttering sound.

Sombra’s heart quickened at the sound coupled with the sight of Amélie lifting her gaze to meet Sombra’s, the surprised smile coming out in a warm slowness. She scrambled to sit up when Amélie appeared at the edge of the bed by her feet. Heat traveled to her cheeks, a little embarrassed in the fact that she was too transfixed in the previous image to noticed that Amélie had moved at all.

A dip in the bed formed beneath Amélie’s weight. She pushed up, climbing over Sombra until she could reach Sombra’s shirt. Amélie grabbed the edge of Sombra’s shirt, the fabric pliable under her grasp. She let go when the shirt was half-way up and let her hand trail down an exposed stomach.

Despite the comfortable temperature of the room, Sombra still found herself shivering, her body suddenly remembered just how _cold_ the tips of Amélie’s fingers were. Another flutter from the camera as Amélie pressed a kiss to her stomach. Sombra squeezed her eyes shut when it happened, feeling a rush of cold flowing down her spine.

“Fuck.”

Amélie stopped just below Sombra’s navel. “Are you okay?”

More than okay. “No, no. I mean, yes. I’m so, so good. It’s just the damn sound from the camera. I-” She couldn’t finish her last thought when she felt teeth against her skin and fingers messing with the button of her pants. Sombra opened her eyes. She looked down, finding a smile aimed at her as Amélie tugged down on her pants. She helped Amélie with the rest until that piece of clothing found a new home somewhere on the floor.

Sombra knew a few things on how DSLRs worked. It had a mirror that popped up at the press of the shutter release.

The shutter would open and close with a clicking.

The mirror then popped down in a cluncking sound.

All of it coming together, barely a second in time, drove her fucking crazy, unable to help the curt gasps and low moans escaping her lips as Amélie nipped just above her hip, a cool touch softly fluttering behind her knee.

Amélie pressed one more kiss to warm skin and moved back up, capturing Sombra’s lips with her own. She smiled into the kiss as Sombra’s hands found their way beneath her shirt. She sat up, helping Sombra with her goal by shucking off her shirt. Amélie found Sombra’s neck when she leaned back down, nipping her way along it as she slid her hand lower.

A hitch in breath preceded everything else. The spark that followed the clicks of the camera when Amélie finally touched her where she wanted her most. She had to hold on. Her fingers pressed against Amélie’s back each time the camera went off, grip tightening when Amélie increased her pace. Incomparable bliss.

Click-click.

Amélie brought her head lower.

Click-click.

Sombra buried her fingers in that long, dark, curtain of hair. The warmth of Amélie’s mouth on her breast. The tingling running up her body in waves. How close they were. And that sound of that camera. That fucking sound.

Click-click

Unable to hold on any longer but at the same time, never wanting any of it to end, Sombra let go. Her fingers dug into Amélie’s scalp as she came. Amélie didn’t seem to mind at all.

Sombra laid there huffing. Her arms went slack, hands falling to her sides as her grip fell to non-existence. Spots of wetness dotted along her skin as Amélie brought her hand up, tracing patterns up on Sombra’s skin. She felt cool fingertips on her cheeks and mimicked the sweet smile shining down at her. Sombra found the will to move her arms when Amélie kissed her so gently. She wanted more of it.

A slow shift in position. Sombra deepened the kiss as she gradually propped herself up enough to direct Amélie onto her back. Breaking away for a moment, Sombra sat up and rid herself of the rest of her clothes, her pesky shirt finally joining her pants in an unseen pile off the side of the bed.

The camera went off behind her back and Sombra stiffened at the sound. She turned her head to stare at it, stuck frozen still as a new sensation washed over her. A head-rush. Before it was as if someone was watching her. Watching _them_.  Watching every little thing Amélie did to make her feel so, so good. And now it felt more like a performance. A performance for Amélie. A performance for _herself_. And she’d get to see. God, she wanted to see those pictures so badly.

A light touch ran along Sombra’s cheek, bringing her focus back to Amélie smiling up at her.

“Eyes on me.” Amélie’s smile widened as she tacked on a ‘please’ to the end of her request. She grabbed one of Sombra’s hands and brought it to the waistband of her suit pants, her want as clear as day.  

The button came undone easily enough. Sombra pulled the zipper to Amélie’s pants down, keeping eye contact with Amélie as she slid her hand in, a groan nearly escaping her lips at what she found. Completely soaked through. The pants didn’t stay on long after that.

It was its own high. The noise from the camera in tandem with the kisses Sombra trailed along Amélie’s thigh. How it made her heart slow to a crawl, the sound of it pounding in her head as she teased Amélie with her hand. When Amélie’s hands clutched frustratedly at the blankets, teeth biting into her lower lip from Sombra being so close yet a thousand miles away from what she really wanted, Sombra could have sworn she’d float off from the head-rush alone.

Hands desperately combing through her hair made Sombra stop in her teasing. As much as she could have gone on with her thorough show for the camera, tender kisses and playful nips everywhere except the place Amélie needed them most, Sombra couldn’t lie to herself. She was getting a bit impatient as well.

Sombra heard a cry of relief at the first taste of Amélie, felt those cool fingertips dig deeper into her scalp, gripping her hair tighter with each swirl of her tongue. It was heaven really. The soft intake of breath. How Amélie tried not to move so much. How she failed in even that task and shook in pleasure when Sombra changed her pacing.

Quiet whimpers escaped Amélie’s lips the closer she got to the edge. Her body arched into Sombra’s touch as a warm hand trailed up her stomach, slick fingers settling on her left nipple, pinching and rolling it, deliberately getting her to spew obscenities at the ceiling.

The sweetest sound. Sombra found herself groaning into a warm thigh, gently nipping at the skin as Amélie came. Amélie’s moans, coupled with her heavy breathing and the intoxicating click of the camera, the most beautiful sound Sombra ever heard.

Amélie tapped Sombra on the shoulder, gesturing for her to come up. When Sombra was close enough, she pulled the other woman close, kissing her deeply.

Sombra pulled away to look at the camera, a thought coming to mind. “Is the camera on a timer or…”

“No. It’ll stop when I get up to do it.”

“And something tells me you’re not getting up anytime soon.”

Amélie smiled and pushed a stray strand of hair behind Sombra’s ear. “Neither are you.”

-

Sombra woke up to a tapping sound. Bleary eyes blinked open and she rubbed the sleep away until her vision finally cleared. When she finally registered the sight in front of her, a heavy blush streaked across her cheeks.

Amélie sat next to her, still very much naked with her laptop perched on her lap. Her eyes were glued to the screen, taking in each picture from last night, face expressionless save for the occasional lip bite.

Sombra spotted the picture where Amélie held her wrist, her mouth covering one of Sombra’s fingers. Her stomach growled, bringing her right out of that particular memory.

“Are you hungry?” Amélie shut her laptop closed and made to move.

Scrambling to sit up, Sombra had Amélie stay put. “How about you let me make you something this time?”

Amélie narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “You know how to cook?” Her lips perked up in a sly smile, obvious that she was only teasing.

Teasing or not, Sombra needed to defend her cooking skills. “I so do.”

“I never seen you do it before, or at the very least tasted anything you’ve made.”

She could play this game. “I mean, we haven’t really spent all that much time together. If you’re not counting our month-long eye-waggling contest, the two times we’ve fucked and all that super-hot photography in-between that is.”

Amélie hummed, exaggerating her thinking face. “You know, I think I _will_ count all that. Plenty of time to have cooked something and yet…” She shrugged, looking unimpressed with the whole matter.

Getting out of bed, Sombra haphazardly put her clothes back on and disappeared into the bathroom. When she came out, she pointed to Amélie who still sat on the bed. “You just sit tight and I’ll be back with something amazing.”

Leaving the room at Amélie’s laugh, Sombra headed for the kitchen. When she got there, she rummaged through the fridge and every cabinet to see what she was working with. She laughed when she opened the last cabinet. “Oh, this is too good.”

Grinning to herself, Sombra grabbed the box she spotted in the cabinet and went back to the fridge. She chopped a few fruits and added them to her super gourmet meal. Satisfied with a job well down, Sombra placed the two bowls she prepared and set them on a tray she found in one of the bottom cabinets. She set the box on the tray as well and picked it up, walking it over to Amélie’s room.

One struggle with the doorknob later, Sombra burst through the door with a giant grin on her face. “You know, when I was looking through what you had, I stumbled across something that had me surprised.” Amélie was on the bed with a robe on, a smile already plastered on her face at the sight. “Imagine my surprise to find out that you have the most _boring_ cereal on the planet.” She placed the tray on the bed by Amélie and carefully climbed on. “Who just eat Cheerios? Plain fucking Cheerios.”

Amélie grabbed a bowl of cereal off the tray and wedged it between her legs. “I like it fine.”

“Mhm. Well, using my expert cooking skills, I made them better. See for yourself.”

Amélie ate a spoonful of her breakfast. “You put fruit in it.”

“Yes, I put fruit in it. You’re welcome.” For her effort, she got a face-full of milk. Amélie covered her mouth immediately after it happened, trying her best to hold in her laugh and prevent any more milk from coming out.

“I’m so sorry.” Amélie reached out with her sleeve to try and wipe the milk off Sombra’s face but Sombra waved the offer of help away.

“It’s fine.” Sombra laughed as she used her shirt to clean her face. “That was cute.” Normally people spewing food in her face was decidedly not cute, but it was just milk and not something like mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are never cute.

A small blush bloomed on Amélie’s face as she took to stirring her cereal in the milk instead of eating more. Sombra was about to chalk it up to embarrassment but then she spoke up. “I have a flight I need to catch tomorrow.” The spoon stilled. “Can I call you when I get back?”

Oh. “Yeah, I mean you can even call me during your trip.”

The stirring resumed until Amélie finally took another bite. She looked at Sombra with a slow forming smile. “If I do that, I’ll be tempted to leave early.”

“You’re leaving for one of your photoshoots?”

A nod.

“So, you’d bail on work just to see me?” That was pretty much what Sombra did in the past week seeing Amélie. Knowing Amélie would do the same made her late nights catching up on projects seem perfectly reasonable.

“I get bored on those extended jobs. I’d rather be back here getting to know you more. If I leave early, the client might complain but,” Amélie went back to staring at her breakfast, “I think it’s worth it.”

So damn sweet. “You should get paid. I’m not going anywhere.”

Amélie’s smile faded at the response. “Yeah, okay.”

Did she say something wrong? “I’ll be waiting for your call though when you get back.” Sombra felt relief at seeing Amélie’s smile come back, albeit, smaller than before.

“It might be a bit of a wait.”

Sombra shrugged. “I’m a patient woman.”

-

It was a week later when Amélie finally called her.

Sombra had gotten used to her routine of getting up, work, getting her daily sandwich, and forgetting to go to the grocery store. In between all that she might have given the folder where she put all the photos from the DSLR camera a glance. Two glances. They were hot photos.

Seeing her phone vibrating on the desk, Sombra grabbed it and leaned back in her computer chair as she answered. “Hey.”

“I just got back.”

“How’d the trip go?”

“It was boring and then it wasn’t.”

“I’m at the edge of my seat here with your thrilling story.” Sombra straightened up at Amélie’s laugh.

“I’m not as good as you.” The laughter died down and there was a stretch of silence before Amélie spoke again. “Could I see you today? I know it’s raining but…” She didn’t finish the thought.

Raining? Sombra got up from her chair and peeked through her window. It was pouring outside. Fuck it. “I could leave right now.”

“It’s okay if you want to wait until the rain stops.”

“I have an umbrella.” Sombra shoved on a pair of shoes and grabbed her keys. “I’ll be there soon, okay?”

More silence. A tiny escape of laughter barely disturbing the air of quiet clued Sombra in on how happy Amélie was with her answer. “Okay.”

Thunder rolled through the air when Sombra got outside. She wished she owned a raincoat as heavy droplets pelted her skin despite the decent sized umbrella held above her head. The only good thing was that Amélie’s place wasn’t far.

Sombra got to Amélie’s building and found Amélie sitting out on the stoop with no fucking umbrella. She hurried up to Amélie and used her umbrella to cover the other woman, not that it mattered much, Amélie was already soaked head to toe.

“What are you doing out here?”

“Sitting.”

That much was obvious. Sombra sighed. “You could have sat inside where it’s not pouring.”

“I like the rain.”

“The rain or getting rained on?”

Amélie laughed. “Both.”

Fuck it. Sombra sat down next to Amélie and closed her umbrella. The rain was cold but not unbearable. It seeped through her clothes in seconds, not even her panties were safe. “What exactly do you like about this?” A hand touched her face.

“Close your eyes.”

Sombra closed her eyes at the request. Sight cut off, she focused on everything else. The sound of the water hitting the pavement, the cold enveloping her skin, and the fingers trailing along her jaw as they made their way down to her neck.

“How’s it feel?” asked Amélie.

“Like there’s nothing else here but us.” The tension in her muscles faded away as she relaxed.

“That’s it.”

Amélie retracted her touch, to Sombra’s disappointment. She opened one eye and peered over to Amélie. Amélie sat with her hands clutching her arms, face angled up towards the sky, eyes closed with a relaxed smile on her face.

“It used to be that I’d run from it to try to keep dry but one day I found myself standing still for hours, my body unable to move.” Amélie paused. “Maybe it’s better to say that I refused to leave. It rained. And it rained. And I found that I didn’t have a reason to keep standing there because every thought that had me chained to that one spot had gone. The rain had washed everything else away.”

Deeper than she thought. Sombra didn’t dare ask what Amélie meant, she had a feeling on what Amélie was talking about. “I understand that.” She did, she really did.

Opening her eyes, Amélie faced Sombra. “Let’s go inside.”

The stairs all the way up to the third floor were dripping wet by the time they made it to Amélie’s apartment. Amélie went inside first, leaving a trail of water along her floor as she headed straight for her room. Sombra closed the door behind her and hurried after Amélie to catch up.

Amélie handed Sombra a towel as soon as she stepped inside the room. Sombra took the towel with a small thanks. Quickly running the towel through her dripping hair, Sombra paused when she saw Amélie peeling away her drenched clothes. Splotches of red and purple ran down Amélie’s side. “What the hell happened?”

Amélie froze. She slowly lowered her towel to the bed and ran a hand along the bruise Sombra pointed to. Her face bloomed realization. Sitting naked on the bed, Amélie took her hair out of its tie and ran her fingers through wet strands. It covered the bruise from Sombra’s sight. “Just a little inconvenience, I’m fine.”

Sombra stepped closer to try and get another look at the bruise. “Inconvenience? What does that even mean?”

“It means someone didn’t want to get their picture taken.”

“You mean someone hit you?”

“With a baseball bat.”

Come again? “Someone hit you with a fucking baseball bat?” Sombra’s hands curled into fists. What kind of asshole does that? Cold hands covered hers, bringing her attention back on Amélie who was smiling.

“He was dealt with and I’m fine, just a little sore. Besides, you’re the one still in wet clothes. Aren’t you cold?”

Wet clothes hit the floor in a heap within seconds. Sombra got closer, worried fingers hovering over the bruise. “Are you sure you’re okay? No broken ribs or something? I mean, it was a damn baseball bat.”

“I saw a doctor and nothing was broken.”

That relieved some of the worry. “You don’t need me to do anything for you to make it better at least?”

Amélie laughed. “Make it better how?”

A good question. She wasn’t a doctor and as far as Sombra knew, bruising tended to heal on its own. An idea formed. “I could kiss it better?”

Amélie laughed again, her eyes crinkling with amusement. “I’m not a child.”

Sombra shrugged. “It’s a yes or no offer.”

A short hum filled the silence as Amélie thought the offer through. “Then yes.” She lowered herself onto her back and motioned for Sombra to get closer.

Careful not to agitate the bruise, Sombra climbed onto the bed and straddled Amélie’s legs. She started at the bottom of the bruise, pressing her lips lightly to the discolored skin. She took her time. Planting kisses on every bit of splotched skin, Sombra found herself smiling into her task at the fingers sliding through her hair, nails giving slight pressure when her lips lingered in some spots more than others. She barely got halfway through the sizable bruise when Amélie pulled her up.

Arms keeping most of her weight lifted off Amélie, Sombra looked down at Amélie with concern. “Are you sure? I don’t want to accidentally hurt you.”

“It’s fine.” Amélie propped herself up slightly, giving Sombra an enticing kiss. An incentive to get closer.

And by God, it would have been fine if Sombra’s arm didn’t slip on the impossibly soft sheets. She landed on Amélie in an instant and scrambled to get up, spewing apologies all the while.

Amélie sounded like a slowly deflating balloon of pain. Teeth biting down hard on her lower lip and eyes squeezed shut, Amélie laid there trying to hold back her groans. A single, drawn-out “Fuck” left Amélie’s lips.

“Oh my god, are you okay? Of course not, that was a stupid question.” Sombra wanted to disappear right then and there. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay but,” Amélie opened one eye as she grimaced, “maybe doing something else might be better.” She held her hand out for Sombra to help her up.

Sombra nodded in understanding as she pulled Amélie up to sit.

“Could you grab some clothes from the dresser for me and you?”

“Yeah, no problem. Anything in particular?”

“Just something comfortable.”

A quick sweep of the drawers and Sombra found out that Amélie had quite the collection of sweat pants. A whole drawer dedicated to them. She grabbed two and fished out some random shirts from another drawer.

After they got dressed in dry clothes, Sombra sat crossed legged on the bed with a guilty expression ever present on her face. She made sure to put a good enough distance between them.

“I’m really sorry about that.”

Amélie probed her side with a tender touch, wincing every now and then until she stopped. She sighed, “It happens.” She inched her way to Sombra with a slight frown. “What I want to know is why you’re all the way over there.

Sombra didn’t move as Amélie got closer. “Embarrassed? Guilty? Both? Take your pick.”

“Mm,” Amélie stopped a hair’s breadth away from Sombra, “maybe I can kiss that better?”

Sombra shrugged, feeling a smile worming its way to her face. “Maybe.” The kiss came so fast, cool fingers on her cheeks jarring her out of her pit of guilt. Her hands instinctively reached for Amélie’s waist but she paused, arms awkwardly hovering in the air when she realized her almost mistake.

Amélie laughed as she pulled away. “You’re thinking too much.” She guided Sombra’s hands to her hips and smiled at the realization spreading across Sombra’s face. “It doesn’t hurt here.”

Amélie was right. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

“Not even-”

“-Not even that. You already apologized earlier. Clean slate, clear conscious.”

Thunder shook the room. Sombra could hear the increased downpour of rain pelting against the window. Despite their revelation on the steps, Sombra wasn’t keen on walking home in that storm any time soon. If Amélie wasn’t going to make a big deal out of her fuckup, then she needed to let it go. “Okay.”

The power went out.

The room was pitch black. Amélie climbed off the bed, muttering a few curses under her breath as she navigated the darkness. A light appeared. Amélie had found her phone and used it to illuminate her path towards the bathroom.

Amélie came back with two lit candles in her hand, a fruity smell accompanying them. She placed them both on the dresser and leaned against the bed. She crossed her arms as she sighed in the direction of the heavy curtains. “One thing after the other.” Her attention landed on Sombra. “Are you hungry?”

“Given up on making-out?”

A wistful sigh. “For now.”

“I’m good though.” Sombra’s stomach betrayed her words as it let out a tiny growl.

Amélie raised an eye at Sombra’s answer, clear disbelief showing on her face. “I’ll make something.”

Sombra shot up from the bed. “No, no, no. I can do that.” She gestured to Amélie’s whole body. “Injured dove and all that.” That earned her a pinch to the arm. “Did I hit a nerve?” Sombra backed away before Amélie could pinch her again. She grabbed a candle and ran out of the room laughing with Amélie hot on her heels.

Sombra got to the kitchen first and made a dash for the fridge. She found herself pressed up against it, warm breath tickling the back of her neck as Amélie evened out her breathing.

“You’re pretty fast for an injured woman.”

“I still got you.”

They stood there, harsh thunder shaking the floor as Amélie kept quiet, the sound of her breathing mixing in with the pattering of the rain. The candle held tightly in Sombra’s hand flickered in the darkness, barely illuminating anything with its weak light.

Sombra heard it, just after a crackle of lightning. Amélie had let out short, stuttered breaths. She was in pain. “When did you get hurt?” The pressure on her back lifted as Amélie put space between them.

“This morning, around 5.”

Opening the freezer, Sombra searched for an icepack but found none. She grabbed the second-best thing. She put the candle down on the counter and grabbed the hand towel hanging off the stove, wrapping the frozen peas with it. “Here.” Sombra held out the makeshift icepack until Amélie took it. “Just relax on the couch, I’ll make us something to eat.”

Amélie stood there with a frown forming on her face. “I can-”

“Yeah, yeah. You can still do it. But I’d rather you not.” Amélie’s frown deepened. “Please?”

It took a moment but Amélie finally relented. She disappeared back towards her room and came back out a minute later with the other candle in her hand.

Sombra didn’t move until she heard the crinkle of the frozen peas in the living room. Satisfied with a job well done, Sombra opened the fridge and took a quick look.

Amélie had a shit-ton of cheese. Any type Sombra could think of, Amélie probably had it in her damn fridge. Considering that the electricity was off, Sombra couldn’t cook anything. Cheese it’d have to be. Sombra grabbed three of the open ones and made quick work putting some slices onto one side of a plate. She opened cabinets until she found some crackers. Filling the other side with the crackers, Sombra grabbed her candle and walked over to where Amélie was.

“You know,” Sombra placed the tray on the coffee table and leaned against the arm of the couch, “you have a lot of cheese. What do you do with all of it?”

Amélie smiled at the question. “I eat it.”

Of course she did. “I mean, what are you using all that cheese for?”

Amélie looked to the plate on the coffee table and grabbed a slice of cheese and a cracker. “Pretty much this.”

Sombra sat down on the couch when Amélie sat up and patted the cushion next to her. She grabbed some food as well, happy in the fact that she didn’t fuck up the meal.

“Do you want to play a game with me?” Amélie set the wrapped bag of peas on the coffee table, taking some food as she settled against the couch again.

“What kind of game?” There wasn’t any electricity or much light, so it’d have to be something simple.

“We ask each other three questions.”

Sombra paused mid-chew. That could hit some touchy subjects real quick. She swallowed her bite of food. “Are there any rules?”

“Nothing too personal. No family, past relationships, and so on.”

She could work with that. “Okay. Who goes first?”

A smile. “What’s your favorite food?”

Sombra rolled her eyes at the question. She knew where Amélie was going with that one. “Does dessert count?”

“Mhm.”

“Orange pound cake covered in chocolate. And I’m talking _covered_ in chocolate. I don’t even want to want to see a sliver of cake until I take a bite.”

Amélie covered her mouth as the food in her mouth almost spewed out onto the floor. She managed to settle down after a moment. “I wasn’t expecting that answer.”

“Gotta keep you on your toes.” Sombra laughed at the eyeroll. “So, next time I come over, is there going to be my favorite food waiting for me?”

A shrug. A sly smile made its way to Amélie’s lips as the silence wore on.

“Guess I’ll have to find out, huh?” Sombra sighed as she thought about her first question. “What is your third favorite color?”

Amélie blinked, visibly thrown off by the question. “Um.” She laughed. “Red?”

“You don’t sound too sure on that one.”

Amélie straightened up and cleared her throat. “It’s red as of right now.”

And how could Sombra argue with that? “Alright, you’re next.”

“Besides collecting secrets, what else do you like to do?”

“I love movies. Theater hopping, in particular, is a good way to pass the time.”

“I knew you were a troublemaker.”

Sombra shrugged. “Stirring up trouble comes natural. Where do you get all those photos you like to take developed?”

“I do it in the guest bathroom.”

It finally hit Sombra that she never actually found out what was down the hall past Amélie’s room, not that she needed to. “A whole darkroom setup and everything?”

“Mhm.”

“Can I see it?”

Amélie stiffened for half a second. She averted her eyes. “Maybe after I take care of my recent photos.”

“Ah, but I would have liked to see that.”

Amélie looked back to Sombra and smiled. “I’ll take new ones,” she reached out and lightly traced the side of Sombra’s face, “since I have my new favorite subject sitting right here.”

If that wasn’t flattery, Sombra didn’t know what was. She felt heat spreading across her cheeks when Amélie pulled her fingers away. “Okay.”

Amélie sat silent as she deliberated her final question. “I know I said no personal questions but…” She bit her lip. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

A slow thudding started in Sombra’s chest. Just what was Amélie thinking about asking? “What is it?”

“Do you fall in love easily?”

Amélie wasn’t kidding, that was a loaded question from the start. Her hands fiddled with the material of the couch as she contemplated the question. She used to, years back. Got her heart broken too many times to count. “Not anymore.” She stilled her hands as she thought about why Amélie would ask that to begin with. Her heart thudded harder. “Same question for you.”

Even in the dim lighting, Amélie’s blush was clear as day. “I still do. I shouldn’t because it’s bitten me back repeatedly, but I can’t help it.”

She couldn’t. Could she? “You don’t mean-”

“-No, no, no.” Amélie’s blush deepened. “Not that I couldn’t with you.” She covered her face, trying her best to hide her embarrassment. “I mean…” Amélie stayed quiet as the right words struggled to leave her mouth.

Cute. Incredibly cute. “Hey,” Sombra reached out, touching Amélie’s arm, “there’s nothing you have to be embarrassed about.”

One eye peeked out from behind Amélie’s hands. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” The loud crack of lightning had Sombra nearly jumping out of her skin, reminding her that the power was still off and that their game had ended. She smiled at the amusement on Amélie’s face. “Looks like we finished the game. Any other games you want to play?”

Amélie pondered the question, a hand on her chin for concentration. She locked eyes with Sombra. “Want to fuck?”

She should have expected it, should have known Amélie would pull something like that. It was a pattern. They’d get comfortable and then Amélie would ask for what she really wanted. And Sombra would give it to her because it was what she wanted too. Still, try as she might, Sombra still wasn’t used to the abrupt wants Amélie would casually spill from her lips. Only one thing stayed the same: it was fucking hot.

“You’re feeling okay then?” Sombra eyed the slow way Amélie approached her until a comfortable weight settled in her lap, hands on each of her shoulders.

“The frozen peas helped.” Amélie pressed a kiss to Sombra’s jaw. “You’re so thoughtful.”

Sombra nodded along, fully accepting she was the most thoughtful person in the whole damn world. She couldn’t even hear the rain anymore when she felt a hand slip past the waistband of her sweatpants.

-

Sombra got home sometime during the next afternoon. Amélie kept her busy. Very busy. Not that she minded in the slightest. They still had to be careful but god was it worth it.

Closing the front door behind her, she made a beeline for her fridge to get a snack. Emptiness stared back at her. “Fuck.” The store was closed that day too. “Dammit.” She really needed to buy some damn food.

Waving off the food travesty, Sombra walked to her computer. She sat down in her chair and noticed a window pop up. Her communication channel.

Three words this time: Take a look. A file was attached.

For all she knew, the file could have had some porn virus on it. She shrugged and clicked it anyway. On the off-chance a virus made it past her security, it’d be a fun little task to weed it out of her system. It was a long time since she laughed at one of those.

The file was a Word document with pasted photos. “Who in the hell made this? Someone’s grandpa?” She scrolled through it and recognized the contents. The first picture was an article from the web. One about the man that got shot at that diabetes benefit. This one was more fleshed out though, adding new details like the fact that the man was found dead locked inside the men’s restroom with a single gunshot wound to the head.

“Now that’s interesting.” She never did follow up on that case. Too distracted with other things to care.

She continued to scroll through the document and then paused, finding herself sick to her stomach at what she just saw. “What the fuck.” Image after image had the same man’s face smiling brightly for the camera as he posed with a mutilated woman’s corpse. Each new picture had a different woman. By the time she got to the last one, she wanted to hurl.

Closing out of the document, she went back to her channel.

-What do you want?

It didn’t take long to get a response.

-A correction in society.

Sombra replied back, curious to know just what they wanted her to do.


	2. And it ends with a bang

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy :)

Three Months Later

Sombra laid on her stomach, smiling on the call with her girlfriend.

“You don’t have to keep doing this.”

“Remember that day you called a raincheck on our cat café date because the closet one was still in construction, so you offered to cook for me but then when I got to your place I found out you ran out of food nearly a week ago?”

Sombra grinned at the memory. “And then we had to go to the grocery store right then and there.”

A laugh. “That’s why we’re going food shopping when I get back.”

Sombra nodded in agreement even though Amélie couldn’t see her. She had a jar of applesauce and a small, opened bag of rice to her name. She was just trying to mess around. “I’ll see you tonight then.”

Call ended, Sombra tossed her phone to a corner of her bed and turned her attention back to the movie she had paused for the past half-hour. She played it again, letting it run in the background and she got under the covers for a nap.

Before she knew it, Sombra found herself waking up to a panicked knock on the front door and her phone going off. She grabbed her phone as she slid out of bed, seeing that Amélie was calling.

“Hey, what’s up?” Sombra held the phone between her cheek and shoulder as she opened the door for whoever it was. The cellphone fell to the ground in a clatter. “Amélie, what…”

Amélie stood on the other side of the threshold, tears streaming down her face as she put her phone away. A deep cut curved up from her lips, torn flesh leading all the way to her ear. Blood matted the side of her head near her temple and her upper lip was swollen, a small cut dripping crimson droplets. She smelled like bleach.

Sombra tried to step closer to Amélie but a shaking hand on her face froze her in place.

Despite the wounds on her face, Amélie smiled wide at the touch, running her thumb along Sombra’s cheek. “You’re here.”

“Yeah, I was waiting for you,” Sombra stepped back as Amélie walked in through the door and closed it behind her, “but you need to get to a hospital.”

A shake of the head no. “Not now, I just…” Amélie wrapped her arms around Sombra, resting her head against Sombra’s shoulder, “I just want to stay here with you.”

Sombra didn’t understand it, didn’t understand how Amélie didn’t seem to be in pain, didn’t understand why Amélie refused to go to the hospital. But she moved her arms, sure in the fact she did know. She wasn’t going anywhere.

“Alright,” maybe if Amélie got the chance to settle down, she’d be more accepting of the idea to go to the hospital, “we’ll just lie down.”

Amélie nodded in agreement, never once letting go when Sombra walked them over to the bed.

Sombra hit the bed, her knees giving way as she toppled over onto it. She crawled back, studying Amélie’s face as she climbed on top of her, smiling wide. There was blood on her hand. It took two seconds to realize that the blood came from Amélie’s back. They really needed to get to the hospital.

“What’s going on?”

Amélie settled beside Sombra, wiping away her tears and smearing the blood on her face. “I thought I was going to die.” Cool fingers touched Sombra’s face, hovering so lightly in the air that it could barely be called a touch. She laughed, settling on dropping her hand to Sombra’s shoulder. “But then he slipped and now I’m not going to die.”

“What happened?”

It was like Amélie didn’t hear the question. Her smile dropped. “I got scared when he hovered over me with that knife. And dying wasn’t what scared me, it was dying alone. Alone in the dark with no one to remember I was even gone.”

What the fuck happened to her? Sombra wanted to ask so badly but her questions weren’t getting answered. She went another route. “I’d miss you.”

“You would?” Sombra’s comment brought a tiny semblance of a smile back to Amélie’s face. It disappeared as soon as it came.

“Yeah, I would.” Maybe Amélie was on some sort of adrenaline high, not knowing how bad the cuts were. “I’d be a crying mess.” It could have been that Amélie needed some reassurance. “Absolutely devasted.” Or maybe they just needed to go to the fucking hospital.

“They all left me when they found out.”

“Found out what?”

No answer. Of course.

Sombra grabbed the hand resting on her shoulder and squeezed it between her palms. “Amélie.” She needed Amélie to talk, to say more about what happened. All the adrenaline-fueled behavior added fire to Sombra’s burning worry. Sombra didn’t understand what Amélie was trying to get at but she desperately wanted her to snap out of it.

Amélie’s fingers jolted in Sombra’s hold. She sucked in a breath of air, eyes roaming Sombra’s face as she exhaled. “I…” A drip of blood spilled out of her lip. She wiped it away with her free hand. “I should go to the hospital.”

Thank God. “Yes, let’s do that.” Sombra sat up, gently coaxing Amélie to do the same. She made sure to keep holding on to Amélie’s hand, even when it got a little awkward with putting on her shoes.

They got to the parking garage of her building with little trouble. Amélie sat happily in the passenger side, occasionally wiping away droplets of blood before they could stain the seat. When they arrived at the emergency room, Amélie had an arm wrapped around Sombra’s shoulders and a wicked smile on her face.

As soon as they got inside the hospital, Amélie let out a scream of pain, groaning about how much it hurt. She was on a bed, shirt off, and with painkillers hooked up to her arm in no time.

A doctor worked on suturing the deep cuts, worry painting his face as Amélie laughed away all his questions about the incident. Sombra noticed that Amélie lied about what happened, stating that she fell. Amélie did mention that her head hit the wall, twice, but laughed at all the cognitive questions directed at her. She nearly snorted at the mention of a scan.

When the doctor finished with the stitches, he left the two of them alone, saying that he’d be back.

“Sombra.”

“Hmm?” Sombra readjusted Amélie’s hand in her grip and gave Amélie her full attention.

“I need you to do something for me.”

Wondering if they might have overdone it with the painkillers because Amélie was most certainly high off her ass, Sombra prepared herself for all sorts of non-sense to come out of Amélie’s mouth. “What do you need?”

“That box of gloves.”

Sombra blinked, registering in her mind Amélie’s request. “You want me to steal a box of gloves for you?”

A vigorous nod.

Well shit, why not? Making sure no one was looking their way, Sombra reached for the box and pulled out all the gloves. She stuffed them into all the pockets she had and smiled wide when the doctor came back with a stack of paperwork and a prescription for pain medication.

“I really recommend you allow me to examine your head.”

“I’m fine doctor. I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to.”

He frowned but handed off the paperwork to Amélie and left after saying goodbye.

Amélie hopped off the examination bed and reached for her shirt. She missed the first time. On the second attempt, she accidentally stuck her hand through the giant tear in the back, laughing herself to death over the mistake. Sombra had to help her put the shirt on properly because Amélie simply dropped it on the third attempt.

“You’re so sweet.”

“Uh huh.” As Sombra lead Amélie back to her car, she couldn’t help but blush at the stream of compliments coming from her girlfriend. High or not, it was still nice to hear.

Sitting in the car with the engine still off, Sombra regarding Amélie giggling to herself in the passenger seat. “I think they might have given you a bit too much.”

Amélie shook her head. “I,” a laugh, “I took some pain meds before I got to your place.”

It clicked. “You cheeky little…” Sombra gave Amélie’s arm a light pinch before starting the car. “I should have known that’s what you were pulling when you acted like you were dying when we got to the ER.”

“They were so helpful.” Amélie’s stomach roared to life, the growling overshadowing the sound of the engine. “And I’m so hungry.”

Gripping the steering wheel tight, Sombra pushed away her worried thoughts. There was no point in asking again about what happened when Amélie was in no state to properly recall the incident. But maybe that was the point.

Her girlfriend was hungry. That was the main concern for now.

“We’ll have to see what’s open.”

Amélie curled up in her seat. She closed her eyes and mumbled something about wanting something sweet.

Driving around for a good ten minutes, the nearest place open Sombra could find was a diner. Good enough. She parked the car and made her way to the passenger side, finding Amélie grinning at her when she opened the door.

“We’re here?”

Sombra extended her hand and waited for Amélie to grab it. “Yeah, let’s get you inside.” She pulled Amélie to her feet when a cool hand wrapped around hers. The short walk inside had Amélie’s humming as accompaniment. 

The only other diner patrons were an older man at a single table and a drunk couple sitting in a booth in the corner. Amélie had dragged them to the center table and took the chair that faced the entrance. Sombra took the other chair and gave the waitress that approached them her attention.

“Can I start you two off with something to drink?” The waitress smiled, pen at the ready for their order. She glanced at Amélie for a moment and her smile turned sympathetic.

“Water is fine,” said Sombra.

“Coffee for me.”

Sombra peered over to Amélie who was already flipping through the menu that the waitress gave her. A yawn escaped Amélie’s mouth every few seconds. Amélie was probably trying to stay awake with the coffee. She shifted her attention back to the waitress. “Two coffees and a water.”

“Okay. Are you ready to order or do you need more time?”

“I want these cinnamon pancakes.” Amélie wasted no time in voicing what she wanted.

“Alright, and for you?” The waitress stood there with her pen ready, waiting for Sombra to go ahead with her order.

“Oh, um,” Sombra flipped through the laminated pages and stopped at the burger section, “A classic double with fries.”

Taking the menus back, the waitress gave them a parting smile, telling them that she’d be back in a bit.

Sombra let out a held breath. She leaned forward over the table, resting her head on her hands. “How are you feeling?”

“Good.” Amélie stretched her arm across the table, resting her palm face up in the center.

Of course. Smiling and shaking her head at the answer, Sombra understood Amélie’s gesture and moved one of her hands to take hold of Amélie’s in the middle of the table. She got a squeeze in response. “I mean about earlier, when you said you were scared.”

Amélie squeezed Sombra’s hand tighter. “I’m-”

“Here are your drinks.” The waitress had come back with the two cups of coffee, placing a mug each in front of Sombra and Amélie. The glass of water was set off to the side near Sombra. “The food will be ready soon.” After placing a bowl of creamers on the table, the waitress left again.

Amélie frowned at the bowl of creamers. She picked one up anyway and poured it into her coffee. Stirring her coffee twice, Amélie took a sip and placed the cup back down. “Can we talk about something else?”

As if they even talked about the issue in the first place. Sombra stared down at her own coffee, looking at her reflection in the drink. Someone hurt Amélie and she didn’t know why. Amélie was scared and she didn’t know why. She couldn’t do anything about it, not unless Amélie spoke to her, something Amélie refused to do. “Yeah, we can talk about something else.” But maybe it was okay to let it go, just for now.

Amélie was happy with the answer. She picked her coffee back up, hiding her grin behind each sip. “Let me tell you a story.”

“What kind of story?”

“A story about how I fell for a cute girl.”

An instant blush appeared on Sombra’s face.

“It’s not very long, but I think about it often.” Amélie put her empty cup down. “It started off with one look. Someone I’d never seen before. We were across the street from each other, but I hardly paid her any mind. Except she always came back. And, well, she was pretty cute.

“She’d laugh, and I think the first time I heard it, I nearly dropped my cigarette. This girl, this girl who ate too many sandwiches would look at me and she’d smile when I caught her eye, not caring in the slightest that she got caught. And I’d smile too because hers was so beautiful that I couldn’t stop myself if I tried. It was contagious to the point where it became natural to do it every time I saw her.

“One night, after a mistake with the police, I got home to find her walking in the dark. She just stopped, her jaw hanging open in disbelief. And then she waved. A short little thing but it had me smiling because she looked happy to see me. She stopped waving all of a sudden, awkwardly dropping her hand with some revelation plastered on her face. I think she thought I couldn’t see her waving in the dark.”

Sombra’s blush deepened because that last part was very true.

“It was such a small thing, but I couldn’t help it. That was it. That tiny, awkward wave in the dark pushed me to talk to her.” Amélie grinned as she ran her thumb along the back of Sombra’s hand. “I was glad I did, because I’ve been so happy ever since.”

The diner got unbearably hot. Sombra could have sworn that even the tips of her ears were red. All she knew was that Amélie’s story could make the bestseller list, well a bestseller list tailored exclusively to her. And then she laughed. “I thought you were some smooth-talking badass but this whole time,” she laughed harder, “you were just as much of a dork as me.”

Amélie’s grin widened. “You know my secret now.”

“It was well hidden, I’ll give you that.”

Their food came while they were still laughing. Sombra’s stomach roared to life at the smell. She was hungrier than she thought. Amélie had already carved into her pancakes by the time she picked up her burger.

“These taste awful.” Amélie pushed away her plate of pancakes and looked longingly at Sombra’s plate. “Can I have that instead?”

Sombra didn’t even get a chance to taste the burger but the hopeful eyes looking her way had her putting the food down and pushing the plate over to Amélie. It would have taken too much time to wait for another burger so Sombra pulled Amélie’s discarded pancakes in front of herself to try them. They couldn’t be that bad. Picking up her fork, she got a small piece and stuffed it into her mouth. Too. Much. Cinnamon. They were covered in this dark cream, the probable main culprit of the problem. Sombra scraped the topping off and dumped the tiny cup of syrup that came with the meal onto the improved pancakes. Not the greatest but they were edible.

Sombra noticed that Amélie was already halfway through with the burger. “The burger’s better?”

Amélie swallowed her bite of food and nodded. “It’s a bit greasy but I like it.”

“Could I have some of the fries though?”

Covering her mouth as she laughed, Amélie tried her best to swallow her food between laughs. “Of course you can, I basically stole them from you. They were yours to begin with.”

“But I gave them to you,” Sombra reached over and grabbed a fry, “and you’ve had a rough night. I would have given you the shirt off my back if you wanted it just on the chance it’d make you feel _slightly_ better.”

“I suddenly think I need your shirt.”

Sombra smirked. She could play that game. “Yeah, sure, whatever you want.” She hooked her fingers at the bottom of her shirt and pulled it up. She only got it about half-way off when Amélie flew out of her chair and pulled Sombra’s shirt back down.

“Keep it on.” Amélie leaned in close for a kiss and pulled back with a laugh. “I should have known you’d do that.”

“I won’t back away from a challenge.” Sombra’s smirk fell at the press of cool fingers along her jaw. Amélie had stopped laughing as she gingerly touched along Sombra’s face.

“You won’t back away from a challenge.”

“No.”

Amélie straightened up and sat back down in the chair. She picked up a fry, eating it slowly as she thought. “And what if my challenge is too much for you?”

“That’s a big if.”

The corner of Amélie’s lips upturned slightly. She didn’t say anything else on the subject.

-

Amélie had fallen asleep in the car on the way back to Sombra’s place. Sombra managed to get her to hold so that she carried Amélie on her back. The walk to her apartment wasn’t long and Amélie wasn’t that heavy.

“You know, whatever it is, you can tell me.” Talking to the night air did the situation no good, but Sombra felt some sort of relief by voicing her concerns. “I just want to know if you’ll be okay.”

Sombra managed to get inside her building and into the elevator with no trouble. She pressed the button for the fifth floor and waited for the slow machine to actually move.

“I’m still scared.”

The elevator lurched up just as Amélie spoke. It spooked Sombra to near death. “Shit, you’re awake. You scared me.”

Amélie wrapped her arms tighter around Sombra’s shoulders and pressed her face against the crook of Sombra’s neck. She inhaled deeply. “Sorry.”

“No, no, it’s- The elevator’s old and you started talking when I could have sworn you were asleep. Never mind that, what were you saying?”

“I know you want me to explain what happened. But that would mean I’d have to tell you about another part of me. And I don’t want to lie to you. That’s why I’m scared.”

The elevator stopped and the doors opened to the fifth floor. Sombra walked out into the hall and found her door. She put Amélie down on her feet and fished out her keys, unlocking her door a moment later. “Then tell me the truth.”

Sombra stepped inside first and heard the door close behind her, she stopped halfway across her apartment when Amélie grabbed her hand.

“I just wanted to spend the rest of the night with you, without having to worry about what comes next.”

Sombra turned around and pulled her hand back from Amélie’s grip. “So you’ll have me worry to death all night just so you can feel better?”

“No, I-” Amélie buried her hands in her hair in frustration. She let one drop as she bit her lip. “He can’t hurt me anymore.” Amélie reached into her pocket and pulled out a pocket knife covered in dried blood. She reached out and forced it into Sombra’s hand. “I’m fine. No one is going to hurt me again.”

Sombra stared down at her hand, at the knife cloaked in Amélie’s blood. She pulled it open and found some blood that still hadn’t dried yet. All Sombra could see were the cuts on Amélie’s skin, remembering each stitch that passed through them as the doctor sutured the wounds closed. And Amélie’s face. She looked up to see tears traveling down bruised skin, the trail splitting its path over Amélie’s swollen lip before dripping to the floor.

It hurt all that much more to hold that knife, knowing everything it was used for. She dropped it, barely hearing it clank against the floor. Her own tears spilled out as all her frustration finally came to a head. “If he’s not going to hurt you anymore, why can’t you talk to me?”

“Because it’s not about what he did. It’s about why he attacked me. I’m not ready for what could happen, what always happens.”

“You think I’m going to leave you.” Sombra finally understood why Amélie was so worried.

“They all did. Because they were scared.”

Sombra rubbed at the tears clouding her vision. “I don’t scare that easily.”

Amélie gave a small smile. “Except for back there at the elevator.”

Sombra tears stilled at Amélie’s attempt to lighten the mood. “Except for that.”

Small steps brought Amélie closer to Sombra until she was just a touch away. “Don’t you have secrets of your own you keep guarded?”

She did. Sombra focused on the floor, having been reminded of just what that secret was. She looked back up at Amélie with a new understanding. It didn’t hurt anyone to keep it to herself, but she’d be a liar to say that she wasn’t scared about it getting out. “I do.”

“Then can’t you understand why I want to keep it hidden, just for one day longer? Even if you end up being the one who stays, even if I was worrying over nothing, there’s still that chance that I’m not wrong.” Fresh tears streamed down red cheeks. “I don’t want to be alone anymore, not when I’ve found you.”

If the wrong person found out Sombra’s secret, there’d be cops raiding her place in minutes, with countries all over the world fighting over the chance to try her for espionage, treason or sedition, in one very specific case, all three. She understood intimately the repercussions a secret could have. That’s why she couldn’t stand to be angry anymore, not with Amélie standing in front of her scared to death. “Come here.” She held her arms open and felt her heart constrict when Amélie wasted no time in falling into the embrace.

“Thank you.”

Walking them back slowly, Sombra brought Amélie to her bed, kicking off her shoes as she laid down beside her. “I understand what you’re saying.” She reached out with her thumb and smoothed away Amélie’s tears. “If you just want to spend the night with me, then that’s what we’ll do.”

“Tomorrow.” Amélie stilled Sombra’s hand and placed it around her waist as she scooched closer. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” She buried her head against Sombra’s shoulder, taking deep breaths as she calmed down.

Sombra nodded along to Amélie’s words, happy that she’d get answers sooner rather than never.

After some time of comfortable silence, Sombra felt a wandering hand stop at her pocket. Amélie laughed when her hand stilled.

“I almost forgot I asked you to do this.” Amélie reached into Sombra’s pocket and pulled out one of the many gloves she had stashed on her person.

“You were really high when you asked me to steal gloves for you. Do you even remember what you wanted them for?”

Amélie took a moment to regard the glove in her hand. She stretched it out the best she could with one hand before laughing again. “Hold on, I got it.”

Sombra waited for whatever revelation Amélie came across. The wait lasted about five seconds when she saw what Amélie had planned. “You fucking dork.”

Amélie had inflated the glove, holding it closed in her hand as she poked Sombra with it. “Tadah, makeshift balloon animals. It’s a turkey.”

Not to let Amélie have all the fun, Sombra pulled out more gloves and blew into them, tying them off before balancing them on top of Amélie. Amélie let go of her glove as she laughed. It flew right into Sombra’s face. A slap by proxy. “Did you just have an inflatable turkey slap me in the face?”

Amélie giggled at the accusation. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“So you deny it.”

“I’ve never done anything wrong in this last minute.”

Sombra cracked up at the line. Every other minute of Amélie’s life was fair game, but in that last minute, she was a perfect angel. “Sorry to burst your bubble but you’ve committed a grave offense.”

A pout. “What’s the punishment?”

Sombra took an exaggerated second to answer. “One kiss.”

With a drawn-out huff, Amélie playfully rolled her eyes. She lifted her lips to Sombra’s, kissing her briefly before settling back against Sombra’s shoulder with a smirk.

Another glove hit Sombra in the face, followed by two more.

“How many kisses is that?”

“One for each additional offense multiplied by the total number offenses. That’s 30.”

Amélie blinked up at Sombra in confusion. “Isn’t it just 12?”

“Well yeah, 12 for the crime and 18 more because I like you.”

Amélie grinned at Sombra’s logic. “Then let’s not waste any time.”

-

Sombra woke up the next morning alone. The space where Amélie slept was cold, meaning she’d been gone for more than just a bathroom run. Sombra gave her apartment a quick once over but couldn’t find her.

Not bothering with making her bed, Sombra got up and headed straight for the fridge. Dating Amélie also meant eating breakfast regularly. Whereas before she’d go for only coffee in the morning, now her stomach demanded more. Since she didn’t get to go shopping last night, the jar of applesauce in the fridge would have to do.

As Sombra went to go get a spoon for her breakfast, a knock sounded at the door. Setting her jar down, Sombra walked over to the door and checked the peephole. It was Amélie standing with a paper bag in her arms.

The stitches on Amélie’s face didn’t look irritated and Amélie’s upper lip had scabbed over. Dark bruising had settled along the side of her face. A stark reminder of last night.

“This is for you since we didn’t get to do it last night.” Amélie held out the bag for Sombra to take.

“Amélie…”

“I know, I said I’d talk to you today but I need to go right now. Last minute client and I have a long drive.”

Sombra took the bag, trying not to show her disappointment. She was worried and Amélie kept pushing it back. “Tonight then?”

Amélie got closer and pressed a kiss to Sombra’s cheek. “Yes, tonight.”

A little better. “Just let me know when you’re ready and I’ll be there.”

Amélie nodded and squeezed Sombra’s arm in agreement. She let go, leaving Sombra standing at the door and she made her way downstairs.

Sombra kicked the door closed behind her hand put the paper bag down on the counter. She opened it and smiled. On top of the small haul of groceries was a wrapped sandwich from the bakery across from Amélie’s place. Sombra took it out, biting into one half as she busied herself with putting away the food. Vegetables, meat, cereal, milk, and pasta. Enough food for a few days.

She stared at her moderately filled fridge while eating the rest of her sandwich. The was one thing she knew for certain: Amélie was sweet. She was always so thoughtful, taking care to make sure Sombra was never uncomfortable. Last night came out of left field. Apparently Amélie did something, was still doing something to paint herself a target. And whatever that something was had been deal-breakers for Amélie’s past relationships.

Closing the refrigerator, Sombra headed for her computer, tossing her sandwich paper out along the way. She sat down in her chair and leaned back in it. She hoped Amélie wouldn’t back out of her promise for tonight. Sombra sighed, covering her face with her hands as she thought everything through. Fair was fair and maybe the best way to get Amélie to talk was to spill her secret first.

“Maybe I should be the one worried she’s gonna break-up with me. Three months and she doesn’t even know my real name.”

Saying her piece out loud made it seem even worse than it was. Trust was hard to come by and any wrong slip on someone else’s part could land her in a hot mess and a rushed plane ticket out of the country. But she liked Amélie. The peace and belonging she had with Amélie couldn’t compare to the occasional fear of getting caught.

Sombra straightened her seat back up and her eyes landed on the framed photo of Amélie on her desk. A quick photo she took with Amélie’s polaroid. That perfect smile as Amélie poked her head out from beneath the covers, Sombra wanted to see it whenever she liked. So she grabbed the camera stashed in a drawer in Amélie’s bedside table and took the picture without a second thought.

It’d be a lie to say she’d be fine if she lost Amélie. She’d fucking hate it. “Is this how you’re feeling? Stuck?” Sombra sighed and crossed her arms on the desk, resting her head against them. “You got me feeling guilty too. And I should be. You’re pretty great you know. I should have told you sooner but I got so caught up in you.” The picture didn’t reply, not that it could.

Sombra pushed herself back up and focused on her computer screen, fast fingers typing on her keyboard for status updates on her projects. “That’s a terrible excuse, so fair’s fair. I’ll tell you my secret and I’ll hope to God you’ll forgive me enough to tell me yours.”

-

Sombra got a text a little bit after nine. Two words: I’m home. A frequent phrase that had Sombra eager to see Amélie. Apprehension replaced that eagerness. She didn’t know what to expect from their talk. They were both hiding something big, the question was how big was too much? The only way to find out was to go see Amélie.

Getting up from her bed, Sombra put on her shoes and grabbed her keys. She locked her door on the way out.

The night was unusually quiet on the walk to Amélie’s. Not even the cats fighting over territory were out. Sombra liked to imagine it was because they made up and got cat married like in the story she told Amélie some time ago. The thought made her hopeful for her situation.

Time fast-forwarded from when Sombra was climbing up the stoop to when she stood in front of Amélie’s door on the third floor. At least it felt like it did. She didn’t bother knocking because she knew Amélie was already waiting for her.

She crossed the apartment, finding Amélie’s door closed for once. Knocking once, Sombra turned the knob and pushed the door open slightly. She froze.

Amélie sat on the corner of her bed, clutching some sort of book to her chest. She loosely held a lit joint in one hand, letting the ashes fall to the floor as she stared at her feet. Blood splattered her face. Blood that wasn’t hers.

Sombra gripped the doorknob harder. She didn’t know what to expect when coming here but it certainly wasn’t what she was looking at. Worrying to say the least. “Amélie?”

No response. Amélie just smiled.

Sombra closed the door quietly behind her and made her way to the bathroom. She ran a washcloth under warm water, wringing out the excess water before walking to Amélie.

“Hey,” Sombra bent down in front of Amélie and touched the wet cloth to Amélie’s face, “let’s get this cleaned off. Okay?”

Amélie let her joint fall to the floor and cupped Sombra’s hand on her face. “This makes me feel good like I’m actually doing something that’s worth a damn.” She clutched the book closer to her chest.

The blood stained the white cloth red as Sombra worked to wipe it away. “That sounds familiar.”

That got Amélie’s attention. “What do you mean?”

Sombra tossed the washcloth off to the side and took a deep breath to compose herself. Now or never. It didn’t really matter who went first. Fair is fair. “I’m not Sombra.” She covered her face, feeling stupid for her fuckup already. “I mean, yes, Sombra is who I am, but that’s not my real name.”

“It’s not?” Amélie loosened her hold on the book by a small bit. Her voice betrayed no emotion, just curiosity.

“It kind of is. It’s a name I built for myself, something to hide behind to take what I want and destroy who I want. Sombra is wanted in every major country in the world,” Sombra paused, feeling her lips trembling at the next words waiting to come out, “but Olivia isn’t. She’s just the girl who’s been fighting her whole life to unravel this fucking world and she needed Sombra to do it.”

Amélie placed the book down on the mattress. She held out her hand for Sombra, pulling Sombra into an embrace when their hands met. Amélie relaxed into the hug, resting her chin on Sombra’s shoulder. “Olivia?”

“Mhm, Olivia Colomar.” Unimaginable relief filled her system when Amélie held her tighter. A heavy weight finally lifted from her shoulders from being able to tell someone after some odd years of keeping everything to herself.

“Thank you for telling me.”

“You’re not mad?”

“Why should I be? You’re still the girl who’d eat too many sandwiches if she had her way. It just turns out you had a cuter name this whole time.”

Sombra laughed. It got worse when Amélie joined in. She didn’t expect that. She expected anger, hurt, and even disbelief. Not total, complete acceptance. That was hard to come by nowadays and Sombra found it by playing a stupid game months ago.

“I have two questions though.”

“Shoot.”

“Why do you tell people you’re Sombra if Sombra is such a high-profile, wanted criminal?”

“Well, when you put it like that, makes me seem like I’m a terrible person. But I do it because no one ever puts two and two together. They think Sombra is some giant collective when it’s really just me. So, when I go around telling people that my name is Sombra, if they even recognize the name, they brush it off as coincidence at most and a quirky name in general.”

“Makes sense.”

“What’s the other question you had?”

Amélie pulled away, biting her lower lip as she held back her laughter. “I wanted to know if you’d like to see my favorite photo album.”

The book from earlier came back into view when Amélie reached for it. “Yeah, I’d love to see it.”

Amélie crawled farther onto the bed and laid back, holding the book loosely in her hands. “They’re photos I took at work.”

Besides the pictures hanging on the wall and their personal photos, Sombra never actually saw the other photos Amélie took, the ones she did for a living. She was curious, to say the least. When Amélie finally parted with the photo album, Sombra didn’t hesitate to take it.

Upon opening the book, Sombra heard Amélie laugh and felt Amélie turn over onto her stomach. And then she had to squint because the first picture was blurry, like it was taken while Amélie was still moving. Her heart stopped when she finally figured out what was in the picture. A man on his back with a bullet hole in his head.

Sombra felt her fingers grip the pages harder as she looked at the rest of the photos. The quality improved with each new page but the theme stayed the same. Dead men, with a shot to the head that done them in. As she reached the final pages, she recognized a few of them. The news reports she only paid brief attention to.

“What…” She needed to find the right question because Amélie was right, her secret was huge. “Who were these people?” There was no way Amélie didn’t kill all those people. It explained why Amélie was so scared to talk about it. Asking why Amélie killed all those people seemed like the best way to figure out if she should run or not.

“Garbage. Garbage men who never got convicted because they’re either too rich or they never got caught. So, I do it myself.”

Sombra looked back at the photos as Amélie laughed to herself. Her fingers relaxed. She was right. In her little game she gave up months ago, she was fucking right. “This is a lot to take in.”

“Everyone who found out, they all thought I’d do something to them.” Amélie quieted. She spoke her next words in a hoarse whisper. “I would never hurt you.”

“I know.”

“You do?” The hope in Amélie’s voice hurt to hear because it made Amélie’s heartbreak that much more apparent.

“Yeah, I do.” Sombra felt Amélie curl up beside her, burying her face against Sombra’s thigh. “You would have done it earlier if you wanted to. Being honest with you, I’d thought you’d be at least pissed about the name thing but now that I know you actually kill people, I can see how you rationalized it so quickly.”

Amélie laughed. Her hands found Sombra’s pants, holding on tight as she laughter deepened. “Oh, it sounds like a joke when you say it like that. ‘Now that I know you actually kill people’. Where’s _your_ rationalization coming from?”

“I grew up in a gang. There’d be days where I’d walk in on a guy getting his fingernails pulled out or someone taking some pour soul, well they weren’t really innocent, out back for an execution. Shit like that was normal before I was even a teenager.”

Amélie took the photo album out of Sombra’s hands and tossed it to the other side of the bed. She patted Sombra’s thigh, encouraging her to lie down as well. When Sombra was on her side, eyes locked with Amélie’s, she wrapped her arms around Sombra’s waist and smiled.

“Is it bad to say that’s a relief to hear? I mean, even I had a normal childhood.”

Sombra laughed at Amélie’s guilty relief. “For the most part, children and gangs don’t belong in the same sentence. But I was alone and they protected me. I wasn’t threatened or kidnapped into joining. I came to them. I was lucky.”

Sombra took a deep breath. “But never mind all that. Talk to me about what you do.”

“What do you want to know?”

Everything. “Is this what you do for a living?”

“Yes.”

“What’s in those envelopes people give you?”

“Pictures, names, addresses, frequent locations, license plate numbers, evidence, court cases, anything and everything I need to know about someone. Sometimes I get people who have the wrong idea, thinking I’ll kill anyone. The envelope is the most important part.”

“And how long do you take to kill someone?”

“Within the week. Sometimes I have to stake someone out if they’re more high profile, hence the trips.”

Sombra was fucking impressed. “So last night…”

“He caught onto me following him. Turned into an alley and I was stupid enough to go in as well. Barely moved out of the way in time before he could fucking stab me.” Amélie shook her head. “After he got my back, he just kept swinging. I got the knife out of his hands and dropped him to the ground but he elbowed me in the face, twice. And then I shot him. Back of the head but it does the same job.”

That put a new perspective on the situation. Amélie got hurt because they fought back, because they didn’t want to die. It wasn’t because someone had it out for her. Somehow that fucked up explanation made everything 100 times better. The worry she felt all night faded.

“I usually like to be careful because I never wanted you to worry.”

Sombra nodded along, recalling only one other instance where Amélie came back hurt. Three months ago with that baseball bat incident. The explanation from before painted a clear picture for how that trip must have gone.

“The charity event you went to a couple months back, that was you?”

“Yes.”

Sombra scrunched her face. “How in the hell did you kill that guy while getting away with the bathroom door locked?”

Amélie looked up, trying to remember what Sombra asked about. “I had several plans in place for that one. The winning one being the bathroom trick. I had staked out the place beforehand and noticed those bathrooms had windows leading out to an alley with a dumpster in it. I moved the dumpster below the windows and used some tools to get the windows unlocked. It was perfect because during the day of the event, a catering truck had the alley blocked from view.

“When I saw the target walk into that bathroom, I spilled wine on my shirt and used the women’s one right next to it. Made sure it was empty and locked the door before climbing out of the women’s and checking the men’s to make sure he was alone. He was. So, I dropped right in and locked the door as he was washing his hands. He didn’t even get a chance to say anything before he had a bullet in his head. Had to rush the picture but I got out and left before anyone noticed he was dead.”

It was like Sombra just finished watching a spy movie. Everything was meticulously planned from the beginning. That guy was going to die no matter what. Then it clicked. “Wait a minute, someone got into contact with me about that guy. Gave me a disturbing info dump on that fucker. Asked for my help with a future project, something they have yet to give me details on.”

Amélie’s eyes widened in surprise. “He said he was going to get me help for that tech CEO. I wouldn’t have thought it’d be you.”

Some more shit clicked. Sombra pushed herself up on her elbows as she put the pieces together. “You’re working with the chief of police, Akande.” She figured out a long time ago that the messages were coming from inside the police station, but she couldn’t pin down who it was exactly.

“Yes.”

“So that night you got arrested…”

“A past partner went to the police. Akande had the arresting officers dismiss the charges.”

“You know, back when all we did was give each other googly eyes, I had a running theory that you were an assassin for hire. It was more fun to believe than the prostitute angle the baker was convinced of. I dropped all that when I got to know you.” Sombra shook her head. “To think I was right with that stupid guessing game I was playing.”

Amélie laughed again, enjoying the admission from Sombra. “That’s what you were doing that whole time.”

“I mean, you also looked really hot chain smoking on that stoop. Still do actually.” Sombra lowered herself back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, processing everything that was said between them. She felt Amélie shift beside her until a heavenly weight sat on her hips and all she could see was Amélie staring down at her.

“You know just what to say, don’t you?”

Sombra smiled at that. “What can I say? I’m crazy about you.” Warm lips were on hers in the next moment. She could feel the texture of the scab scratching against her lips, but she didn’t care. Sombra cupped Amélie’s cheek as they deepened the kiss, gently feeling along the stitches up to Amélie’s ear. She shuddered into the kiss, knowing exactly why those sutures were there.

Amélie’s hands busied themselves with the button of Sombra’s pants, popping it open and pulling down the zipper in two seconds. Sombra lifted her hips, helping Amélie to get the pants off and onto the floor. Amélie moved down lower. She kissed along Sombra’s thigh, nipping and smiling into heated skin each time Sombra twitched or moaned.

Sombra hitched her breathing, feeling a pulse of pleasure working through her body as Amélie tightened her hold around Sombra’s thighs and paid all her attention on one single point. It felt like too much and not enough at the same time.

Thinking back to earlier, if Amélie was ever going to kill her, right then was how she’d die.

-

Sombra woke up to the sound of shuffling through the room.

A dim lamp lit the far corner of the room where Amélie toweled off her wet hair. She was being considerate as to not wake Sombra up. She paused when she noticed Sombra looking at her through sleep-ridden eyes from across the room.

“Did I wake you up?”

Sombra didn’t want to say yes because she knew Amélie cared about small things like that. “I heard you coming out of the bathroom is all. No big deal.”

Amélie got closer and leaned on the side of the bed Sombra was on. “Sorry. It’s early, I thought I was quiet enough.”

A yawn. “What time is it?”

“About 4:30.”

“What are you doing up so early?”

Amélie paused. “I have work.”

That got Sombra’s attention and pulled her away from sleep’s grasp. “You mean…”

“Yes.”

Sombra’s heart pounded in her chest. She just had a thought that made her fingers twitch. “Could I come see?”

Droplets of water dripped from Amélie’s hair onto the bed as she stayed stock still at Sombra’s request. “Are you sure?”

It wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before and she really wanted to know just how Amélie did it. “Yeah, I want to see.”

More silence as Amélie deliberated the request. “Okay. It’s a long drive though.”

“That’s fine. I can sleep in the car.”

That seemed to make Amélie happy.

It was about half an hour after Sombra took a rushed shower that she found herself standing in the dark hallway that led to the guest bathroom. She had been in that room before, getting a little lesson in developing photos. She remembered the stumbling in the dark and the way Amélie patiently walked her through the process. A good memory, something she’d like to do again.

Amélie stepped inside first, turning on the lights before opening the cabinet under the sink. She pulled out a black duffle bag and opened it. A gun was the first thing seen. Amélie picked it up and checked the magazine. She seemed satisfy with her little check and then chambered a round before stuffing it away in the bag.

Next was another camera Sombra hadn’t seen before. It looked slightly older than the one Amélie usually used. She opened the back and put a new roll of film in it before closing it again.

There were other things in the bag Sombra could see, towels, clear bottles that smelled like bleach, a first aid kit. She didn’t get the chance to see it all before Amélie zipped up the bag and hoisted it onto her shoulder.

“We’re going to the country side, a vineyard,” said Amélie.

“Is it the owner?” Sombra followed Amélie out of the bathroom.

“Mhm.”

They made their way out of the apartment and walked downstairs, going out back until they found Amélie’s car parked.

Sombra always thought Amélie just made a lot of money with her photography business when she first saw Amélie’s car. Now she knew exactly how Amélie got that car.

Climbing inside the passenger side, Sombra turned on the seat warmer and leaned the seat back as far as it would go. Closing her eyes, she settled in to get some more sleep in. She heard Amélie toss the bag in the back of the car. A sudden softness had her peek an eye open, Amélie had pulled a blanket from somewhere and covered her with it. So sweet.

“Thank you.” Gentle fingers brushed over Sombra’s cheek, stilling before pulling away.

“You get some sleep; the drive will take a little under five hours.”

If Sombra wasn’t so damn tired, the comment about the five-hour drive would have made her eyes bulge out. No wonder why Amélie didn’t want to call during her trips, she’d want to turn the fuck around the moment she knew she could be doing something better. She kept that thought to herself, too tired to even think about complaining on Amélie’s behalf. So, she slept.

The next time Sombra woke up, Amélie was gently shaking her shoulder. Sombra blinked her eyes open and lifted the seat back up. She checked the time, 10:30 am. Looking outside the window, she saw a crowd of people heading over to a covered area with tables and chairs. The view beyond that showed the actual vineyard.

Sombra yawned and stretched her arms out. “What’s going on?”

“Some luncheon.”

“Are we crashing it?”

Amélie shook her head. “I called Akande on the way here, he got us last minute seats.”

Sombra pursed her lips. “You mean some rich fuckers lost their seats?”

“Mhm.”

Sombra laughed. “I thought we came here to kill a guy, not eat at his fancy luncheon.”

“You didn’t eat before we left.”

Heat pooled in Sombra’s cheeks as her stomach let out the loudest growl. She nodded sheepishly, suddenly looking forward to the future dead man’s food. “Yeah, I could eat.”

Amélie shook her head, smiling as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

As they approached the tables, a man stopped them and asked for a name. His expression faltered when he noticed the stitches on Amélie’s face but he didn’t speak on it.

Sombra had to hold back a snicker as Amélie gave a fake last name. She nearly choked when Amélie introduced Sombra as her wife.

The man let them through and Amélie wrapped her arm around Sombra’s waist as she led them to their table.

Sombra took a seat first, still stuck on the ‘wife’ bit. “Your wife huh?”

Taking the seat across from Sombra, Amélie leaned her chin on her hand. She had her gaze fixed on the vineyard as she spoke. “That’s how Akande set it up.” A tinge of pink dusted her cheeks.

“So, let’s say we _are_ married, your place or mine?” Having gotten past her initial reaction, Sombra decided to poke some fun.

Amélie turned her full attention to Sombra, lips parted in thought. She furrowed her eyebrows as her blush deepened. Dropping her hands to the edge of the table, Amélie fiddled with the silverware as she spoke. “We’d be back home.”

“Home?”

“A family estate near Annecy. It was,” Amélie’s fingers stilled, “too big for just myself.”

The way Amélie spoke made it clear that they were coming up on a touchy subject. Taking into account on where they were, Sombra didn’t pursue the questions lining up in her head. “So, we gotta fill it up, right?”

Amélie smiled. “With what?”

“Well for one, those cats you can’t have in your apartment.”

“How many?”

“Dunno, how big is the estate?”

“Big.”

“Okay, I’m just throwing a number out here but… Ten cats.”

“Ten?” Amélie’s eyes widened as her smile grew. “That’s a lot of cat litter to change.”

Sombra waved it off. “We’ll get those self-cleaning things.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And what else can we put in there? Hmm. Oh! The pictures you took.”

Amélie’s smile curved into a smirk. “Which ones?”

“Which ones?” Sombra furrowed her brows at the question. It dawned on her. “Oh. _Oh._ ” Sombra scratched her head, her body heating up as she recalled the pictures she had on her computer, the folder that kept growing. “All of them.”

“And what would our guests think when they try to use the bathroom and come face to face with photos of me eating you out?”

“Well for one, why would you put those in the bathroom? I was thinking more the kitchen. And two, we don’t need guests.”

“Just us and the ten cats?”

“And don’t forget our nude photos everywhere.”

Amélie bent her head over, laughing hard. She had her arms curled around her stomach as a tear streamed down her cheek. As the laughter died down, Amélie wiped the tear away. “God I-” She clamped her mouth shut before she could finish.

“You what?”

Amélie peered over to the vineyard again. “I can’t believe you sometimes.”

The chattering from around them stopped. A man stood in the middle of the tables, welcoming all the guests and thanking them for attending.

Sombra moved her seat closer to Amélie and leaned in close. “Is that him?”

“Yes.”

“So, when does he… You know.”

Amélie smiled as the meals were being served. “Soon enough. First, we eat and drink his shitty wine.”

“Is it really that bad?”

Amélie shook her head. “No, but he’s shit so his wine is too.”

Totally understandable.

Lunch consisted of three courses, with the dessert being a chocolate soufflé. By the end of it, Sombra sat leaned back against her chair as she had her hands on her stomach thinking if she held it long enough, the uncomfortable fullness would disappear. So far, ten minutes had passed, and she still felt the same.

Amélie stood up from her chair and helped Sombra to her feet. She led them back to her car.

“Where are we going?” asked Sombra.

“He’s going home.”

“Oh shit, you’re going to do it at his house? Doesn’t he have a wife or something there?”

Amélie turned on the car and put her seatbelt on. “He killed his wife.”

And suddenly the overbearing fullness Sombra felt vanished. A high-pitched ringing shot through Sombra’s ear as Amélie pulled out of the parking lot. She barely even noticed when they got to the man’s house.

With the car parked, Amélie reached into the backseat and unzipped her duffle bag. Binoculars. Amélie leaned her arms against the steering wheel as she viewed the house. “No guards, just like they said. Idiot.” She placed the binoculars back in the bag and got out of the car. She took her bag out from the backseat and motioned for Sombra to follow.

They walked until they reached the gate surrounding the man’s home. Amélie reached into her bag and pulled out two pairs of gloves. They had gripping material on the palms. She gave one pair to Sombra and put on the other.

Amélie cleared the fence in four seconds. One moment she was standing on the ground and the next she basically threw herself at the gate, using the momentum to pull herself up and over the thing. All that with that duffel bag thrown over her shoulder.

“Your turn,” Amélie said with a smile from the other side of the fence.

Not to be outdone, Sombra pulled on her gloves and gave the gate a once-over. She gave herself a running start because she wasn’t as tall as Amélie. She cleared it in about the same time, give or take the second used to run at the gate.

Feeling the adrenaline coursing through her veins, Sombra watched Amélie pull the gun from her bag and stuff it in the back of her pants.

“Are we breaking in?”

Amélie shook her head. “Front door.”

Amélie really meant the front door because as soon as they got there, she rang the fucking doorbell.

The man didn’t immediately answer. That seemed to piss Amélie off as she furiously continued to ring the door. She stopped as soon as she heard footsteps approach from the other side.

The man stood surprised. He looked over Sombra and Amélie, checking to see that the front gate was closed. “How did you get in?”

Amélie ignored the question. “We’re lost. Could you help us out?”

He stood there confused. Blood splattered the entryway and he fell back against the floor, unable to utter a single word before Amélie shot him.

Sombra looked around in a panic. She didn’t know Amélie was going to do it right in the open. Right where anyone could walk past and see. Or hell, maybe someone heard the gunshot.

“What the fuck? Right here?”

Amélie walked inside and grabbed the man’s arm. She pulled hard, dragging him across the floor until the front door was able to close. “I’ve learned no one hardly ever comes out to see what’s going on. Too caught up in themselves to bother.” She motioned for Sombra to come inside and closed the door behind her.

Taking in the view of the home, Amélie made a remark to herself. “Too dark.” She dragged the man’s body further into the home until she got to a more open space. His arm thudded against the tile when she let go.

The camera in the duffel bag came to mind when Sombra tried to figure out what Amélie was doing. Of course. Amélie needed a picture for her album. “You need more light?”

Amélie nodded. “We can see if there are any lamps in the living room that can work.”

The man had four standing lamps in his living room. They took three and made their way back to the body.

Amélie took a solid ten minutes as she fiddled with the lighting. Her effort created a glow that highlighted the hole in the man’s head.

“Perfect.” Amélie went back to her duffel and took the camera out. She returned to the body and hovered over it, taking several photos from different angles and distances.

If it weren’t for the dead guy on the floor, Sombra could have sworn it was a professional shoot going on. “Do you keep all the photos?”

“No,” a click, “I find the perfect one and burn the rest. They don’t deserve a whole album.”

Photo session done, Amélie pulled out her phone and sent a text. She didn’t bother to wait for a response.

“We can go.”

It sounded so normal like they just finished shopping or something. “You got a, a little blood on your face.”

Amélie blinked and then she laughed. “That always happens.” She dug into the front zipper of her duffel and pulled out some wet wipes. Amélie went over her whole face with the wipe. “Good?”

“Yeah.”

Stuffing the used wipe in her pocket, Amélie closed her bag and hoisted it over her shoulder.

On the way out, Amélie pressed a button and the front gate opened for them.

-

Sombra found herself jolting awake as cool fingertips gently shook her arm. They were back at Amélie’s apartment building.

Amélie unbuckled herself, sinking into her seat. Her eyes fluttered closed. “I could sleep right here. So tired.”

“You could have asked me to drive.” Sombra yawned as she curled up in her seat to face Amélie.

“Too late for that now.”

“Mhm.”

The pull of sleep was strong. Amélie could barely keep her eyes open and all Sombra wanted to do was go back to her snoozing. But they needed to at least get back to the apartment. If they fell asleep on the couch at least it was better than inside Amélie’s car.

“Come on, we gotta get out of here.”

Amélie nodded in agreement but did nothing to change her current position.

It was up to Sombra to get shit done. She took a deep breath and pushed herself up. Opening the car door, she closed it behind her and dragged herself to the driver’s side. First, she took the keys out of the ignition. Then, she scooped Amélie up and had Amélie lean against her shoulder. She might have considered carrying her girlfriend if she weren’t so damn tired.

Using each other for support, they managed to slug their way up the three flights of stairs. Amélie forgot what key was for the front door so they had to spend a good minute as she stuck each key into the lock.

When the door opened, they wobbled inside and Sombra closed it behind them. She huffed as she deliberated between the couch or making the effort for the bed. She straightened up and took a deep breath as she headed for Amélie’s room. Waking up with a kink in her neck wasn’t on the agenda for the morning.

They fell over onto Amélie’s bed with delirious laughter.

“We made it.” Sombra hugged a pillow, burying her face in its soft depths. “We fucking made it.” A cool touch pinched her ear. She turned her head to see Amélie giving her such a tired smile.

“Thank you.”

“I didn’t want us to spend the night in the car is all.”

“No, I mean…” Amélie laughed, “Yes, thank you for that but I meant for coming with me. For understanding.” Her smile got smaller. “For staying with me.”

“Amélie,” Sombra got closer, “I meant what I said last night. I’m crazy about you, I’m not going anywhere.” She shrugged. “So what if you have a… Quirky job.”

“It’s just,” Amélie bit her bottom lip, “I’ve had it happen before. They said they were okay with it. And then I wake up alone and never see them again.”

“Hey,” Sombra wrapped Amélie in her arms, “I’m going to be here tomorrow morning, the day after that, and the days after that. Okay?”

Amélie nodded her head against Sombra’s chest. She kept quiet, finally closing her eyes again in the comfort of Sombra’s embrace.

Deep, even breathing. Amélie had fallen asleep. The pull was strong, having Sombra snoozing away soon after.

-

Two weeks had passed since Sombra went with Amélie to the countryside. Two weeks since a news report covered headlines. That came and went. Suspicions crept up with his dropped trial. Rumors spread that the case was covered up. And suddenly people didn’t care about him anymore.

Something else happened during that same time. Amélie laughed more. And Sombra laughed with her. It was hard not to.  Not when Amélie would come from behind and cover Sombra’s eyes and lead her to the kitchen to show off that stupid cake she loved. Or when she took Sombra to that cat café that finally opened only to find out she was a cat magnet and spent the whole time hiding her coffee from the curious critters wanting to take a drink.

And they’d laugh in the middle of a job when Amélie would complain about the lighting but then stop to make light of the fact that at least she wasn’t the guy she just killed. Amélie laughed just the same if her shirt got stuck climbing over a fence or if she forgot her silencer in her guest bathroom so she had to use a pillow to muffle the sound of her shooting a man in his own apartment.

Sombra found it cute, endearing, and so fucking hot all at the same time.

There was one other thing Amélie did that drove Sombra crazy. Amélie called her Olivia. Two weeks and Sombra still wasn’t used to it. Her heart would pound in her chest and she’d grin on the spot. Even for simple things like, “Could you pass the remote?”

Even now, Sombra was still out of it for being asked to pass Amélie the salt for the quick meal she was making.

“Olivia?”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been standing there clutching the salt to your chest with a grin for the past minute.”

Sombra’s muscles jolted into action. She handed Amélie the salt with twitching fingers, trying her best to compose herself. “Oh, you know.”

“Know what?” Amélie added a bit of salt to the pot she stood over.

“Just feeling so happy that I forgot you asked about the salt.”

Amélie put the salt down and turned down the heat. “Sounds familiar.”

Sombra saw the smile spreading slowly across Amélie’s face. “Yeah, I was just remembering how you said that you used to love cooking and I can see that now, why you’d love it.” Amélie’s smile vanished.

“That’s…” Amélie turned the burner off. She lifted an arm to wipe away the tear that spilled down her cheek.

Sombra knew she said something wrong because telling her girlfriend that she loved cooking with her was never supposed to have that reaction. “I’m sorry.” She had no idea what she was sorry for but apologizing for something you said usually went a lot farther than trying to explain away what went wrong.

“No, no.” Amélie covered her eyes as she sucked in breaths through clenched teeth. “I just hadn’t thought about that for a while now.” She sank to the floor, gripping the lower cabinets hard as she leaned her head against them.

Sombra dropped to her knees, hurrying to gather Amélie in her arms. She wanted to ask so badly, to ask what exactly was wrong. They were talking, opening up to each other more as each day went on, but was this any of her business? Not if Amélie didn’t want it to be.

“You okay?” Sombra would have taken Amélie to her bed already, laid there with her until the tears stopped. But Amélie had work tonight, she didn’t have the luxury to cry all night.

“I am.” A hiccup. “I will be.” Amélie finally let go of the bottom cabinets and buried her head in Sombra’s shoulder.

Silence stretched on between them as Amélie concentrated on controlling her breathing and Sombra focused on the repetitive motion of rubbing Amélie’s back.

When Amélie finally spoke again, Sombra nearly jumped out of her skin. They’d gone so long without saying a word on the kitchen floor that she was about to doze off.

“I was married once.”

Sombra stilled her hands.

Out of everyone in the world, Sombra never looked Amélie up. She considered it, the pull to snoop around yanked her interest hard. But she never did. Because it was part of the game she played. When she dropped the whole ordeal months ago, she still never bothered to give Amélie’s files even a quick look.

It would have been easy to find out. Two minutes of searching would have given her everything she needed down to the last thing Amélie bought with her credit card. But she was falling hard and the things she used to do out of boredom didn’t matter as much anymore. She wanted to know Amélie’s story from Amélie herself. And so far, it’s been surprise after surprise.

Sombra resumed her comforting touch. The tense muscles coiled along Amélie’s back relaxed with each repetitive motion and the slight trembling that came with Sombra’s continued silence stilled.

“His name was Gérard.” Amélie’s lips tremble as she tried to speak. She kept repeating the same word until she decided to say something else. “Between his job as an intelligence officer and mine with ballet, we always ate out. He’d joke around that he couldn’t wait until we got married so we could have a homecooked meal together.

“I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was a terrible cook. He found out the morning of our honeymoon when I tried to make breakfast.” The crying died down as a laugh came from Amélie. “He came running into the kitchen of the cabin we had rented to see the stove in flames and me standing on the other side of the room trying to protect myself with a plate.

“Half his mustache burnt off trying to put out that fire.” Amélie’s body shook with laughter. She balled her hands in Sombra’s shirt as she laughed away at the memory. “After he put the fire out, he told me he’d teach me how to cook. And he kept his promise.

“Every day. We cooked together every day. And I loved it. I loved every minute of it.”

The laughter died down. Amélie dropped her hands from Sombra’s shirt, letting them hit the ground with a thump. She stared down at them, her voice trembling as she struggled to speak. “One day I found him in a pool of his own blood, a masked man kneeled beside him.”

Sombra pulled Amélie closer when Amélie couldn’t help the uncontrollable trembling of her body.

“I couldn’t move and that man, he knew there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop him. I stood there and watched as he came to me with the _sick_ smile and a knife in his hand. He had the knife up to my throat before he started laughing and backed away. He told me, ‘Just kidding,’ and then he left. He just left, like nothing happened.”

Anger tinted Amélie’s voice. She stopped trembling and her words turned harsh.

“Weeks passed, and the police couldn’t find the masked man. But I did. He was in a commercial. Those same eyes. That same laugh. Those same damn words, ‘Just kidding.’ He used the fucking punchline in his stupid commercials on me after killing my husband.

“I tried to get him convicted but they,” Amélie’s voice broke, “they called me hysterical. They told me the TV must have been on with that commercial running. Told me I wasn’t thinking clearly because I was still in grief. Said there was no evidence connecting him. So, they let him go. And I got angry.”

“I got angry enough to find someone that could get me a gun. Angry enough to find him. Angry enough to put a bullet through his fucking head.”

Amélie breathed in deep. She let out her breath and stood up, pulling up Sombra with her as she wiped the tears from her face. She grabbed two bowls from the cabinets and filled each one with the stew she made earlier.

They went to sit at the bar. Sombra stayed quiet. For the most part, she didn’t know what to say. Plus, she was still trying to take in Amélie’s story. It was a lot to say the least. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Amélie reached for her unoccupied hand. Too caught up in her thoughts to notice. Sombra squeezed the hand back, giving Amélie a smile to let her know that she was still all ears.

“I met Akande shortly after that. Me being their first suspect, they had me sitting in an interrogation room for hours as they asked me the same questions over and over again.”

That’s when Sombra finally spoke, her curiously getting the better of her. “Kept quiet?”

“Mmhm. I didn’t say a damn thing.”

That made Sombra laugh. She quickly reeled it in, covering her mouth in shock when she realized what she did. “Sorry.” It was insensitive to laugh during the story about Amélie’s murdered husband. That much Sombra knew.

Amélie laughed too. She waved off the act like it was nothing. “The interrogation was actually amusing for me. These officers were almost to the point of pulling their hair out trying to get me to confess. The truth was, I didn’t care what they did to me. I did the one thing that finally made me feel a fraction of happiness. Even if I did confess, they couldn’t take that away from me. It was just funnier to see them work for it.

“And that’s when Akande came in. He paused the tape recorder and turned off the camera. He sat down and looked me straight in the eyes. He asked me, ‘Did you kill him?’ And I nodded. I didn’t know what he was thinking beyond that stare of his, just that I shouldn’t lie to him.

“After what seemed like an eternity, Akande asked me another question, ‘Would you do it again?’” Amélie paused to take a bite of her food. Her growling stomach and the quick pace in which she ate let Sombra know how hungry she was. “I told him I would and, so, he asked one more question. ‘Why?’ I nearly spit in his face because I never laughed so hard in my life as I told him the reason.”

“What was the reason?” asked Sombra. She was 100% invested in Amélie’s story, having basically vacuumed up her food just so the noise of eating couldn’t distract her from hearing every detail.

“I told him it was because that man was a piece of shit who deserved to die because he thought he could get away with what he did.” Amélie shrugged. “And I’ve been working for him ever since.”

Sombra pushed her bowl away from her. She watched Amélie sit in her stool with a relieved smile on her face. “Is this your first time telling anyone this story?”

Amélie nodded.

Sombra held her hand over her heart. “Then your secret’s safe with me.”

Amélie’s smile grew and she went back to eating, a tinge of red covering her cheeks.

-

It was about an hour after dinner when Sombra found herself playing a card game in some guy’s apartment they broke into. When they got there, no one answered. Amélie didn’t seem fazed as she pulled out her lockpicking kit. She paused in the middle of her work and turned to Sombra asking if she wanted to do it. It had been a while since Sombra broke into someone’s house. She took over the work anyway. It was like riding a bike. You never really forget how.

Complete blackness greeted them when the front door swung open. Amélie grabbed a flashlight and pulled Sombra along with her to check out the apartment. Most likely she was looking for the best photo spot, at least that’s what Sombra thought until Amélie pulled out a blacklight and turned off her flashlight.

The kitchen counter and the floor. The dining room table. All along the couch. Speckled on the ceiling and in long trails along the floor. The bathroom floor, its walls, and on the cabinet below the bathroom sink. And in the bedroom. The worst of it was in the bedroom.

Blood.

All of it was blood.

Amélie made a comment on how, “The piece of shit was shit at cleaning too.” She turned on the lights to the living room and pulled two chairs that the blacklight showed had no blood on them by the coffee table. Amélie rolled her eyes, she was already done with this man. “We’ll have to wait.”

Sombra won every card game they played. It might have been because she cheated each time, but Amélie never said a word about it.

Amélie put her cards down when she heard footsteps approaching the door. They were accompanied by drunk giggling. Amélie casually opened her duffel bag and pulled out her gun. She reached inside and grabbed her silencer as well, slowly screwing it in as the front door unlocked. Amélie placed the gun on the coffee table, out of sight unless someone got close enough.

The man paid no mind that the lights were already on as he led the drunk woman hanging off his arm inside. The woman stopped laughing when she spotted Sombra and Amélie in the living room.

“What the hell is this?” The woman pushed herself off the man, slamming a hand against his chest in her anger.

The man looked between the drunk woman and Amélie in confusion. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

The woman frowned at his explanation. She shoved past him and went back to the front door. “I don’t know what kind of shit you’re trying to pull but I’m not here for some fucking foursome.”

The door slammed shut behind the pissed off woman.

Sombra couldn’t hold in her laughter. Her cards dropped to the floor as she held her stomach. Tears streamed down her face. The man started yelling at her, but she couldn’t hear a damn thing he said.

“You shut your damn mouth.” Amélie stared him down until he stopped screaming at her girlfriend. She smiled. “See? Isn’t that better?” She picked up the remote for the TV and raised the volume until the sound echoed off the old walls.

“What-”

“Shut the fuck up.” Amélie stood up from her chair, pinching her nose in annoyance. She grabbed her gun and let it hang off two fingers as she approached him.

The man nearly tripped over himself as he backed away from Amélie. “H-hey-” He stopped moving, falling face first to the floor after a suppressed shot pierced his skull.

Amélie walked over to the man and bent over him, poking him with the tip of the suppressor. “You couldn’t stop talking for one minute.”

Sombra approached Amélie with Amélie’s duffel bag slung over her shoulder. The deep thumping of her heart pumped through her ears with each step. There was one more thing she learned over the past two weeks. Sombra found Amélie working to be… Fucking hot. She bent down near the dead man and tried to compose herself with deep breathes.  “Were you actually going to let him talk?”

A laugh. “No.” Amélie flipped the dead man over so his face looked towards the ceiling. She crinkled her nose at the sight. Blood had dripped down his face, caking it in dark crimson. Amélie hated messy pictures.

The trip to the kitchen went by in a blur. Sombra grabbed a hand towel and ran it under warm water. She came back to Amélie and offered it to her with a knowing smile. “For my picky girl.”

Amélie grabbed the towel, red painting her cheeks. “Just look at him, the blood ruins the picture.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s ugly.”

“Uh-huh.”

Amélie shoved the towel in the man’s face. She wiped away the blood, mumbling under her breath the whole while.

“What was that? If you didn’t what?” The first little part was all Sombra made out from the mumbling.

The blush covering Amélie’s cheeks darkened. She hurriedly finished with cleaning the blood away and tossed the red-covered rag somewhere behind. “Nothing.”

“No, no, no. You said something.”

“Mmhm.” Amélie grabbed her duffel bag. She pulled out a couple flashlights that were covered with opaque pieces of paper. “I might have.” She put some chairs near the dead man and zip-tied the flashlights to them, angling them just right before securing them on. She grabbed her camera afterward and walked around trying to find the perfect angle.

“And what was it that you might have said?” Sombra turned off the living room lights for Amélie. She could see why Amélie didn’t like them in the first place. One lightbulb kept flickering on and off and the other was too dim to illuminate much anything.

“That’d be a whole lot of nothing.”

Sombra’s shoulders sagged at the answer. She lowered her head in defeat. “It wasn’t bad though, right?”

Amélie stopped her searching and lowered her camera. An honest smile appeared along with soft eyes. “You don’t ever have to worry about that.”

-

Sombra finally got the OK to do her thing a few days after Amélie’s latest job. Akande had apparently gathered enough evidence against their high-profile target. In other words, he knew Sombra was going to find something, he just couldn’t get it through his usual means. And Sombra could see why.

The fucker was the CEO of an up and coming cybersecurity firm and he knew what he was doing. Sombra had been at it for nine hours and still couldn’t get anywhere.

A knock on the door brought Sombra out her frustrated state. She peered over to her phone on her desk and saw three missed calls. “Shit.” Sombra’s computer chair went flying across the room as she rushed out of it to get to the front door.

“Sorry, sorry-” A cool hand on Sombra face stopped her from speaking her third ‘sorry’ into existence.

“Hungry?” Amélie held up a brown paper bag that came from the bakery down the street.

Sombra nodded into Amélie’s touch. She hadn’t eaten all day, too preoccupied with cracking the bastard’s code.

Amélie led Sombra to her tiny table and emptied out the bag. Two sandwiches came sliding out. She handed one to Sombra. “Coffee?”

God that sounded so good. Sombra nodded again, tearing into her sandwich a second later. She leaned back into her chair in bliss. “I didn’t even notice that you called.”

“It’s fine, I know you’re busy.”

“Busy is right. Bastard is trying to hack me back. Been trying to find out my location for the past two hours. Which, it says something that it took him until two hours ago to realize I was snooping around.”

“Has he gotten anywhere?” The smell of coffee wafted through the apartment. Amélie poured out two cups for them, returning to the table when she was done in the kitchen.

“No, so far all he knows is that I’m currently in Atlantis.”

Amélie laughed at Sombra’s answer. “How about a break then?” She drank her coffee but left her sandwich untouched.

“But I’m so close.”

A smirk. “How long have you been close for?”

“Uh,” Sombra blanked at the question, “for uh…”

“Oh really?” Amélie got up, her fingers trailing along the table until they stopped against Sombra’s forearm. “Are you sure about not taking a break?” She walked her fingers up Sombra’s arm until they rested on Sombra’s shoulder.

“I’m sure.” The tension in Sombra’s shoulders melted away as Amélie took to massaging them. “I, I um.” It felt so fucking good after hours of terrible posture. A kiss pressed against the back of her neck. Sombra gripped the table as hands traveled beneath her shirt, fingers pressing into her skin. Two words echoed in her head. Her new motto in life. Fuck it.

Sombra got up from the table and took hold of Amélie’s hand, leading her the few steps it took to reach the bed. She had Amélie sit on the bed. Sombra straddled Amélie’s thigh and cupped Amélie’s unmarred cheek. Her eyes traveled over Amélie’s scar. It was still pink and jagged, the former the result of a dull blade. Amélie never covered it up, but Sombra saw those moments where Amélie would linger a bit too long in front of the mirror, her fingers sometimes hovering over it, just barely a touch.

Sombra kissed the scar first. She always kissed it first.

-

One week later, Sombra held on tight to the railing that kept her from falling into the crowd of people gathering below. She was at the top of an office building that stood directly across from where the target was. A firework show was about to start, the reason Amélie saved that day to take out her mark.

“You think anyone would notice if… A drop of rain hit them?” asked Sombra. She peered over to Amélie who didn’t so much as twitch at the question.

Amélie was on her stomach, had been for the past half hour as she diligently stared down the scope of her high-powered rifle. “You want to see if anyone would notice that you spit on them?”

“Well, when you put it like that,” Sombra hurled a ball of spit over the railing, “it sounds way grosser.” She held her breath, waiting for some audible reaction for her scientific experiment. The crowd was loud, but the poor soul who got smacked with her little gift was louder. Sombra backed away from the railing, holding her stomach tight as she skidded down to the floor in laughter.

Sombra found all the dirt she needed on the target that same day a week ago. Sent all the pictures to Akande along with instructions on how to make a pdf. Human trafficking. That’s how the fucker got the funding to start up his company. He used his talents to make a secure network for those sick fucks to do business. If it weren’t for the fact that Amélie was about to take him out, Sombra might have wanted to take a crack at the bastard herself.

“How long ‘til the show?” Sombra thought Amélie’s plan was genius, using the sound of the fireworks to cover up the shot from her rifle. They had the cover of night and the distraction of whatever celebration that was going on to keep people from noticing. Amélie was only upset that she wouldn’t be able to get a picture due to the many security measures installed in the building. That was until Sombra assured Amélie she could get them in easy.

“Three minutes.”

“There gonna be any glass?”

“No. The windows have bulletproof glass, but my rifle can pierce a hole through it. It’ll crack, but that’s it.”

“Sounds hot.”

Amélie broke her perfect composure to laugh at the simple comment. She moved away from her rifle and waved for Sombra to come closer. “Come here.”

It took five seconds to cross the space between them. Sombra wrapped her arms around Amélie’s neck and faked a contemplative expression. “Don’t you have to shoot that guy?”

“He hasn’t moved at all since we got here, thanks to you. I could probably squeeze the trigger with my eyes closed and hit my mark.”

Such a devious idea. Sombra moved closer, her lips pressing against Amélie’s jaw. She took her time tracing up Amélie’s scar until she reached Amélie’s ear. Pulling away for just a moment, she spoke her idea with a growing grin. “Why don’t we find out?”

Amélie breath hitched. She kept quiet, instead threading her fingers though Sombra’s hair as her answer. Pressed onto her back and shirt hiked up, Amélie tightened her hold in Sombra’s hair. Soft, short gasps escaped her lips as Sombra revered every inch of skin she could find.

The fireworks started but Amélie showed no signs of wanting to stop. Especially not when Sombra popped the button to her pants open and slid her hand inside. She pulled on Sombra’s shirt until Sombra got the hint and moved back up.

Sombra kissed Amélie, feeling her heart pound as Amélie deepened it. Her spine tingled with each blast that shook the building. It reminded her of the feeling she got every time they brought the camera into the bedroom, except the shockwaves rocking through her body came from the actual explosions happening above her head.

At the sound of a particularly large blast, Amélie pulled away with a groan. She pushed herself to her elbows making a mention for Sombra to keep going as she reached a shaking hand towards the rifle. As her finger wrapped around the trigger, she closed her eyes and listened to the fireworks.

A loud boom sounded. It mixed in with the finale of the show, the only indication of the rifle having been fired was the smoke coming out of it and the giant cracked panel of glass from across the way. Sombra had whipped her head in the direction of the sound as soon as it happened, her fingers stilling as she gaped at Amélie’s handiwork. Desperate tugging at her sleeve snapped Sombra out of her reverie. She stared back at Amélie who was clutching at her own hair and biting her bottom lip as Sombra picked up the pace of her touch.

Amélie came with the cheering of the crowd. She grinned into the air, letting her hands fall to the floor beneath her.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Sombra tried to calm down but two things kept her pulse thrumming hard in her veins. One: She was so fucking horny. Pulling her hand out of Amélie’s pants, Sombra groaned at the slickness coating her fingers. She could smell the heady scent and it only added more fire to the already burning pile. Two: Her adrenaline was through the roof. Her heart pounded a thousand times a minute, threatening to burst out of her chest as heavy blood throbbed in her ears. She kept looking back between the cracked glass and Amélie beneath her. It was a mix that kept feeding into itself, leaving Sombra feeling like she was about to fucking explode.

Somehow, some-fucking-how, Sombra managed to move her locked joints. She practically shook all the way to Amélie’s duffel bag. It took two tries to open the zipper. Sombra pulled out the binoculars and clamped her trembling hands to either side of them. Despite the thousands of cracks trying to obscure her vision, Sombra could make out a body slumped over a desk, red speckling its surface.

“Shit Amélie,” Sombra let her hands drop to her lap as she stared out at the punctured glass in awe, “the bastard’s fucking dead.” She heard some shuffling from the side and the sound of Amélie’s zipper being pulled back up.

Amélie had come up from behind and wrapped Sombra in her arms as she placed a kiss to Sombra’s cheek, laughing when she pulled away. “I told you I could do it.”

“Yeah,” Sombra nodded absentmindedly, “you did.” She shoved the binoculars back into the bag, keeping her eyes glued to that damn glass. “We should,” Sombra closed her eyes at the feeling of Amélie kissing along her jaw, “we should get going.”

Amélie paused, pulling away slightly. “Let me take care of you first.”

As much as Sombra would have loved to get fucked on that very rooftop, they were on a time crunch. “If you want to get your picture, we need to go now.” She felt a frown forming against her skin.

“After then.” Amélie gave one more kiss before she got up and went to disassemble her rifle.

-

They came in through a back door, after Sombra got the cameras on a loop. Security was low. The cybersecurity firm relied heavily on their automated systems to alert authorities of any threats. Except Sombra had them completely disabled. The most security the firm had now was a lone officer sitting at the front desk as he played Candy Crush. They tip-toed past him with no problem.

The CEO’s office was on the twelfth floor. They had to take the stairs so as not to tip the security guard off. Most everyone was gone, the only reason the CEO was still there being the little game Sombra had set up hours earlier. She figured he was a prideful man and he’d be too preoccupied with “beating” his new adversary to notice that Sombra already had him wrapped around her finger. It was a little sad.

The door to the CEO’s office opened with ease. Sombra whistled low to herself at the scene. The glass from the inside looked even worse, with a single hole coming through the center of it all.

Amélie crossed over to the dead man and pulled his body away from the laptop he was slumped over. She pointed her chin to the lit screen, “Could you take care of that? I’ll get him ready.”

“Yeah.” Sombra took off her gloves and replaced them with a disposable latex pair. She walked over to the desk and nearly snorted at the progress the man made. He got practically nowhere. Two seconds of typing and a password prompt came up. Sombra typed in the word ‘idiot’ and all signs of her meddling disappeared from his computer.

Amélie had the man on his back. She had her arms crossed as she inspected the office. Not so much as a lamp to help with the poor lighting. Turning on the overhead lights weren’t an option. She sighed and looked to Sombra. “I’ll have to hold the flashlights then.”

“You sure? I could do that if you want.” They had discussed their plans days earlier. Amélie offered for Sombra to take the picture this time and when she agreed to it, she taught Sombra the ins and outs of her camera, how to work it and adjust the lens for the best photo.

“It’s fine. I used to hold a flashlight in one hand and take the picture with the other back when I started.” Amélie dug into her bag and pulled out her camera, holding it out for Sombra to take. When Sombra took hold of it, she grabbed two of her covered flashlights and turned them on. She stepped over the dead man and bent down, angling the flashlights towards his face at different angles. “That good?”

“Mmm,” Sombra got closer. She fiddled with the camera as she inspected the lighting, “yeah, that’s good.”

Never in thousand years did Sombra ever envision herself doing this. But there was no other explanation for the situation she was in, standing over a dead man as she took pictures of him for her girlfriend that killed him. And she didn’t care. As she took picture after picture, she couldn’t care less that he was dead or that it was Amélie that did it.

Through it all, Amélie kept looking between Sombra and the lights in her hands. She’d smile for a bit before looking away whenever Sombra caught her eye. Sombra stopped taking photos when it happened for the fifth time.

“Am I doing it wrong?”

Amélie shook her head. “No.”

“Oh,” Sombra took a couple more pictures and stopped, satisfied that she had enough, “then what did you want to say?”

“Mmm.” Amélie’s smile only grew. She tossed her flashlights back into her duffel bag and slung it over her shoulder. Amélie stayed quiet when she wordlessly asked for her camera.

Sombra handed the camera back and frowned when Amélie headed out of the office.

They got to the stairwell when Sombra stopped with a suggestion. “Let’s take the elevator instead.”

“What about the guard?”

Sombra pulled out her phone and took a few minutes fiddling with it. She showed video feed of the security guard getting out of his seat. “Set off the seventh-floor alarm. He needs to take the stairs if he wants to catch whoever’s there.” Sombra gestured to the elevator with a smile, “So?”

Amélie pressed the down button and waited with wandering eyes for it to get to their floor. She was the first one on when it dinged open.

For a tech company, the elevator was surprisingly slow. Sombra stood leaning against the elevator wall with her arms crossed as she watched the floors change at a snail’s pace.

Amélie hadn’t said a word since they stepped inside. She stood near the door, giving Sombra a few glances here and there.

And then she spoke.

“Olivia?”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

The doors opened to the ground floor. Sombra reached out and slammed the close door button until they shut again. She took her time dropping her hand back to her side as heat traveled all the way up to her ears. “You, you waited until we’re in a damn elevator to tell me.”

Amélie turned around with a sheepish smile on her face. She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess.” Her smile only grew. “It almost slipped out a couple times before but-” She couldn’t even finish her sentence before Sombra had her pressed against the elevator doors, her face buried in Amélie’s neck.

“I love you too.” Sombra didn’t even have to think about it, she knew exactly how she felt. “God, I love you too.”

It felt so good to say. So damn good.

-

They rushed up to Amélie’s apartment in a flurry of laughter. As soon as the front door swung open, they went right to the guest bathroom, keeping the room in complete darkness.

Sombra had Amélie’s camera in her hands. She opened the back and pulled out the film canister. They’d developed film before. Amélie guided Sombra’s stumbling hands through the dark plenty of times until she knew what she was doing. Sombra went through the motions, loading the film onto the spool, cutting the film off the film canister, loading it into the developer tank, and so on and so on until all she had to do was hang up the negatives to dry.

“And that should be it for a few hours.”

Sombra didn’t have time to admire her handiwork. Amélie pulled her out of the guest bathroom and into Amélie’s bedroom. She led them into her bathroom, dropping Sombra’s hand as soon as she turned on the lights.

Amélie headed for the shower and started the water. She stripped out of her clothes, tossing them to a pile on the other side of the room. Motioning for Sombra to join her, Amélie stepped inside the shower.

A trail of clothing led to the shower. Sombra stepped in behind Amélie, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend as she let the steaming water soak her body. One of the things Sombra loved about Amélie’s shower was the size of the water spray. The shower head Amélie had installed was huge, enough so the water hit them both equally.

They stood there, rocking to and fro ever so slightly as the hot water warmed their skin. Amélie stopped their little trance. She grabbed a washcloth and lathered it. Working on Sombra’s arm around her waist, she ended up turning around when she had both arms as clean as she could get them.

Sombra loved it when Amélie got to her hair. The soothing scratching of her scalp as fingers worked the shampoo through wet locks. Soapy fingers pinched her cheeks. Sombra opened her eyes with a fluttering of lashes, surprised she even dozed off in the first place.

Sombra returned the favor. She rubbed down every bit of Amélie’s skin her fingers could find, settling on that long hair last. She had it hanging off Amélie’s shoulder to rinse off and busied her lips with the scar that bisected Amélie’s back tattoo.

The water came to a stop. Amélie walked out of the shower first. She grabbed a hanging towel and used it to ring out the extra water in her hair before patting her body dry. Holding her towel close, Amélie smiled all the way back to Sombra who was still standing starstruck in the shower, having felt that way since their talk in the elevator.

Amélie placed her towel around Sombra’s shoulders, pulling the fabric closer until all Sombra’s attention was on her. She lifted the towel and covered Sombra’s hair with it. She mussed the towel through wet hair, joining in Sombra’s laughter when she stopped with her drying efforts to sneak in a kiss.

Pulling Sombra along with the towel, Amélie led her to the bed where she had Sombra lie down first. She climbed over Sombra and settled on her hips, towel in hand. Amélie wiped away the stray droplets of water before tossing the towel somewhere off into the room. She ran her fingers through damp hair, kissing warm lips when her fingertips finally got their fix.

Sombra groaned into their kiss. Eager fingers found their way to her nipple, rolling and teasing it with a practiced touch. Her hands followed the curve of Amélie back, all the way until she found two handfuls of Amélie’s ass and squeezed.

Amélie moved away from the kiss with a hitch in breath. She trailed her lips down lower, nipping her way below until they replaced her busy fingers. Her teeth gently surrounded that stiff peak, applying pressure every now and then between swirls of her tongue.

Dancing fingers slid down her stomach. The muscles in Sombra legs twitched as Amélie’s finger dragged along her slit, stopping once it found a pool of wet heat. She clenched her teeth as Amélie individually dipped three of her fingers, coating them thoroughly.

Perfection. Amélie’s fingers moved in perfect rhythm, never once slowing down or showing any signs of fatigued. They worked diligently, seeking only to keep that stream of stuttered breathing flowing, to hear that trembling voice breaking as Sombra came, squeezing in waves around Amélie’s fingers.

Amélie pushed herself up, supporting her body with her arms. She stayed hovering above Sombra as she took deep breaths. Amélie smiled with soft eyes. A trembling took to her lips until she bit down on them. Her efforts were only effective for a few seconds. Amélie buried her head in Sombra’s shoulder, fed up with trying to keep her face composed.

“You ever feel so happy that you cry?”

The warm breath against Sombra’s skin was accompanied by cool tears. Sombra absentmindedly ran her hand along the scar on Amélie’s back, letting her know that she understood the feeling. “I’ve never actually cried though, gotten close a few times.”

“Well, I’m crying right now because I love you so much.”

Sombra’s eyes twitched. Her vision blurred as thick tears gathered along her lashes. One tear fell following the hiccup in Amélie’s breathing.

“And you love me,” another hiccup, “and that makes me want to cry even harder because I feel so fucking good.”

Sombra cried too, that infectious happiness finally doing her in.

-

They came back to the guest bathroom the next morning. A red light illuminated the space while Sombra got the print making station set-up, Amélie examined the negatives for the perfect shot. She ended up cutting out two frames and then sliced the rest into small triangles, dipping the mess into an ashtray she had in the room. She opened a drawer and took out a lighter and a cigarette. Smoke filled the room after she lit the cigarette. Amélie let the lit end hover near the film until it caught fire in the ash tray.

“You haven’t done that in a while,” said Sombra. She shut the bathroom door and turned on the light, bathing the room in a red glow.

“Done what?”

“Smoked cigarettes.”

Amélie puffed away. “I thought it didn’t bother you.”

Sombra smirked at the smartass reply. They smoked plenty of times together before. She was just referring to Amélie’s chain-smoking habit whenever she had to wait for more contacts. Amélie hadn’t so much as lit a cigarette in the past few weeks. The sudden reintroduction to smoking reminded her of its absence. “I like it actually, reminds me of the good times growing up. I’d sneak out to go smoke with the brooding, pretty girl in the park after her strict curfew.”

“So you have a type.”

Sombra took the two negatives from Amélie. She put one into the photo enlarger and fiddled with the adjustments until she had the image as she wanted it. The image from the negative displayed in a larger format. She started the print in its solution bath when it was exposed for the necessary amount of time. She thought about Amélie’s comment while she dunked the print in water. “You might be onto something there.”

“Might?”

Sombra held back her response when the image of the second negative came into view. It was a photo of her with her back turned and her arms wrapped around the railing at the top of that building. Her hair flowed in the light breeze. Sombra didn’t even know Amélie bothered to move in all that time she stared down her scope, let alone rummaged through her bag for a picture.

“Maybe I have a type.” Sombra shook away her urge to break out her goofy smile. She mentality listed traits she found attractive, hopelessly breaking out into a grin when they all described Amélie.

“It’s not just maybe.” Amélie grabbed Sombra’s hand that had dunked the second print into a tub of water. She weaved her fingers through Sombra’s laughing before she spoke Sombra’s thoughts into existence. “She’s taller than you, tells you her wants, and keeps coming back for more of you,” she grinned knowingly, “and you can’t get enough of her long hair.”

“Yeah,” Sombra led their intertwined hands back into the tub of water, pulling out the prints from their rinse, “all that sounds about right. But maybe, maybe I like the fact that her little habit of falling in love easy rubbed off on me the most.” She held the prints up in the air and waited for Amélie to take them.

Amélie back away from Sombra, prints in hand. Her eyes stayed glued to the picture of Sombra, slowly taking in the photo top to bottom repeatedly. She didn’t even bother to look at the second picture.

“How’d they turn out?” asked Sombra.

Amélie opened the door, letting the hallway light finally filter into the red-tinted darkness of the guest bathroom. She reached behind for Sombra’s hand, smiling wider as they left that room together. “Perfect,” she brought them back to her room and placed the photo of Sombra on her mirror, right next to the color polaroid Sombra took months ago, “just perfect.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole story came from one idea that kind of went wild. It was basically those photography scenes from part one. But then I put some plot. Just a little. 
> 
> I hope you all had a good time reading.


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